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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/appreciationofarOOsturiala 


THE  APPRECIATION  OF 
ARCHITECTURE 


ST.  PETER'S  CHURCH,  ROME,  FROM  THE  HILLS  NORTHWEST  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


THE  APPRECIATION 
OF  ARCHITECTURE 

HOW  TO  JUDGE  ARCHITECTURE 


BY 

RUSSELL  STURGIS,  A.M.,  Ph.D. 

Fellow  of  the  American  Institute  of  Architects,    Member  of 

The  Architectural  League  of   New    York,    The    National 

Sculpture    Society,    The   National    Society    of    Mural 

Painters,    etc.,    etc.      Author    of    "Dictionary    of 

Architecture    and    Building,"    "European 

Architecture,"   etc.,   etc. 


FIFTH    EDITION 


NEW   YORK: 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO. 

Union  Square,  North 


CopTright,  1903,  By  The  Baker  &  Taylor  Ca 


Fubliifud,  September t  iqo$ 


KA 
XS'SO 

Contents 


CHAPTER  FAOB 

I.  Eakly  Greee  Design 11 

II.  Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design        .        .  35 

III.  Early  Medi.eval  Design       ....  66 

IV.  Central  Medleval  Design    ....  93 
V.  Late  Medieval  Design 114 

VI.  Revived  Classic  Design        .        .        .         .  131 

VII.  Later  Revived  Classic  Design     .        .        .  143 

VIII.  Eighteenth  Century  Design         .        .         .  159 

IX.  Nineteenth  Century:  Imitath-e  Design     .  176 

X.  Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design     .  192 


[5] 


Illustrations 


St.  Pbter's  Church,  Rome 


I.  Hexastyle  Doric  Temple,  Paestum, 
II. 

m. 


Southern  Italy 
Parthenon,  Athens 
Parthenon,  Athens 
Theseum  (Theseion),  Athens  . 
Curvature  of  Stylobate  of  Parthe- 


IV.  Restored  Model  of  the  Parthenon 
V.  Erechtheum  (Erechtheion)  Athens 

Erechtheum,  Athens 
VI.  Erechtheum,  Portico  of  Caryatides 
VII.  Erechtheum 

Details  of  Entablature,  Acropolis 

Athens      .... 
Comer  Capital,  Acropolis,  Athens 
VIII.  Temple  of  Athene  Polias,  Priene 
DC.  Restored  Model  of  Pantheon 

The  Pantheon,  Rome    . 
X.  Ruins  of  Temple  of  Castor  and 
Pollux,  Rome 
Ruins  of  Temple  of  Mare  Ultor, 
Rome       .... 
XI.  Basilica  of  Maxentius  and  Constan 

tine,  Rome 
XII.  Sculptured  Details  of  Temple  of 
Vespasian,  Rome 
Arch   of   Trajan,    at    Benevento 
Southern  Italy 

XIII.  Jerash,;SyTia  (Ruins  of  Gerasa) 
Ancient  City  Gates  of  Gerasa 

XIV.  Part  of  the  Bounding  Wall  of  the 

Forum  of  Nerva,  Rome     . 


Frontispiece 

PAOB 

Facing 

r        14 

« 

15 

« 

15 

ft 

24 

« 

24 

It 

25 

It 

36 

i< 

36 

<i 

37 

<( 

38 

« 

38 

« 

38 

<« 

39 

« 

48 

i< 

48 

49 

49 

54 

55 

55 
60 
60 

61 


[7] 


Illustrations 


XV.  Basilica   Santa   Maria  Maggiore, 

Rome Facing      72 

XVI.  Interior  of  the  Church  of  San  Min- 

iato,  near  Florence,  Tuscany    .        "  73 

XVII.  Church  of  Sant'  Ambrogio,  Milan       «  76 

XVIII.  Interior    of    Cathedral    Toumai, 

Belgium  ....        *  77 

Church  of  St.  Mariiin  (der  Gross  S. 
Martin)    at    Cologne,    Rhenish 

Prussia "  77 

XIX.  Church  of  the  Holy  Apostles,  Co- 
logne, Rhenish  Prussia    .        .        "  80 
XX.  Cathedral   of   St.    Martin,   Mainz 

(Mayence)  Hesse,  Germany     ,       "  81 

XXI.  Tower  of  Church  of  St.  Radegonde, 

Poitiers,  (Vienne)  France  .       "  84 

XXII.  Church  of  Notre  Dame  la  Grande, 

at  Poitiers        ....       *  85 

XXIII.  Interior  of  Church  Hagia  Sophia, 

Constantinople  ..."  88 

XXIV.  Exterior  of  Church  Hagia  Sophia, 

Constantinople  ..."  89 

Church  of  S.  Theodore,  Athens    .       "  89 

XXV.  Monastery  of  Gelati  near  Kutab  in 

the   Caucasus  ..."  90 

XXVI.  Chapel  of  Nancy,  France       .         .        "  91 

XXVII.  Interior  of  Amiens  Cathedral        .       "  98 

XXVIII.  Cathedral  at  Reims (Mame) France, 

Choir  Aisle       .         .         .        .        "  99 

Cathedral  at  Reims  (Mame)  France, 

Choir  Aisle,  Different  View         .        "  99 

XXIX.  Cathedral    at    Amiens    (Somme), 

France.     Exterior     .         .         ,        "  102 

XXX.  Cathedral  at  Chartres(Eureet  Loir)        "  103 

XXXI.  Cathedral    at    Salisbury,    Wilts, 

England  .         .         .         .        "  108 

XXXII.  Bell  Tower  of  Cathedral,  Florence, 

Tuscany  .         .  .        "  109 

XXXIII.  Cathedral  at  Gloucester,  Glouces- 
tershire, England     ..."  120 

[8] 


Illustrations 


XXXIV.  Cathedral  at  Peterboro'.Northants, 

England Facing     121 

XXXV.  Westminster  Abbey,  London        .       "  122 

XXXVI.  Chapel     of    Henry    VII.    (Willis 

drawing) "  123 

XXXVII.  Church    of    Brou,    at    Bourg-en- 

Bresse    (Ain),   France      .         .        "  124 

XXXVIII.  Church  of  Saint  Wulfran.   Abbe- 
ville   (Somme),   France   .        .        "  125 
XXXIX.  Townhall  of  Audenarde,  Belgium       "  126 
XL.  Outer  Porch,  Albi  (Tarn),  France       "  127 
XLI.  South  Porch,  Albi  (Tarn),  France       "  128 
XLII.  The  Loggia  dei  Lanzi  at  Florence       "  129 
XLIII.  Chapel  of  the  Pazzi,   Church  of 

Santa  Croce,  Florence,  Tuscany       "  134 

XLIV.  Palazzo    Rucellai,    Florence        .        "  135 

XLV.  Palazzo  Strozzi,  Florence,  Tuscany       "  138 

Palazzo  Riccardi,  Florence    .         .       "  138 

XL VI.  Courtyard   of   the   Palazzo   della 

Cancellaria,  Rome    .         .        .        "  139 

XLVIL  Cloister,  Santa  Maria  della  Pace, 

Rome "  140 

XL VIII.  Courtyard  of  Palazzo  di  Venezia, 

Rome "  141 

XLIX.  Courtyard   of   Palazzo    Borghese, 

Rome "  142 

L.  Chateau  at  Blois  (Loir  et  Cher), 

France "  143 

LI.  Royal   Chateau  at  Blois  (Loir  et 

Cher),  France   .         .         .         .        "  148 

LII.  Chateau  of  Ecouen  (Seine  et  Oise), 

France "  149 

WoUaton  Hall,  Notts,  England     .       "  149 

Lin.  Hall  of  Middle  Temple,  London       "  152 

LIV.  Church  of  the  Theatiner  Monks  at 

Munich,  Bavaria       ..."  153 

Ducal  Palace,  Genoa,  Italy   .         .        "  153 

LV.  Palazzo   Carignano,   Turin,   Pied- 
mont, Italy      .         .         .        .       •  172 
Palazzo  Madama,  Turin,  Italy    .       *         172 

[9l 


Illustrations 

PLATB  PAOB 

LVI.  Exhibitions    Building    (Kunstaus- 
stellungs-Gebaude,)       Munich, 

Bavaria Facing     173 

Gateway     Building     (Propylaea), 

Munich "  173 

LVII.  Interior  of  St.   George's  Church, 

Doncaster,  Yorks,   England     .        '  190 

Exterior  of  Church  of  St.  George, 

Doncaster         .         .        .         ,        "  190 

LVIII.  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  Mass.         .       "  191 

LIX.  Cathedral     at    Truro,    Cornwall, 

England  .         .         .         .        "  196 

LX.  Apartment    House,    "St.    Alban's 

Mansions,"  London  ..."  197 
LXI.  West  Plam  Institute,  Sussex,  Eng- 
land           *'          204 

LXII.  House  and  Beer-shop  (zum  Spaten) 

Berlin,   Prussia         ..."  205 

LXIII.  Club -House,  Cercle  de  la  Librairie, 

Paris "  208 

LXrV.  Building  of  N.  Y.  Life  Insurance 

Co.,  St.  Paul,  Minn.        .        .       "         209 


[10] 


The 
Appreciation  of  Architecture 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLY   GREEK   DESIGN 

In  trying  to  train  the  mind  to  judge  of 
works  of  architecture,  one  can  never  be  too 
patient.  It  is  very  easy  to  hinder  one's 
growth  in  knowledge  by  being  too  ready  to 
decide.  The  student  of  art  who  is  much 
under  the  influence  of  one  teacher,  one 
writer,  or  one  body  of  fellow-students,  is 
hampered  by  that  influence  just  so  far  as 
it  is  exclusive.  And  most  teachers,  most 
writers,  most  groups  or  classes  of  students 
are  exclusive,  admiring  one  set  of  princi- 
ples or  the  practice  of  one  epoch,  to  the 
partial  exclusion  of  others. 

The  reader  must  feel  assured  that  there 

are  no  authorities  at  all  in  the  matter  of 

architectural    appreciation :    and   that  the 

only  opinions,  or  impressions,  or  compara- 

[11] 


Early  Greek  Design 

tive  appreciations  that  are  worth  anything 
to  him  are  those  which  he  will  form  gradu- 
ally for  himself  He  will  form  them 
slowly,  if  he  be  wise :  indeed,  if  he  have 
the  gift  of  artistic  appreciation  at  all,  he 
will  soon  learn  to  form  them  slowly.  He 
will,  moreover,  hold  them  lightly  even  when 
formed  ;  remembering  that  in  a  subject  on 
which  opinions  differ  so  very  widely  at  any 
one  time,  and  have  differed  so  much  more 
widely  if  one  epoch  be  compared  with  an- 
other, there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  final 
judgment. 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  help  the 
reader  to  acquire,  little  by  little,  such  an 
independent  knowledge  of  the  essential 
characteristics  of  good  buildings,  and  also 
such  a  sense  of  the  possible  differences  of 
opinion  concerning  inessentials,  that  he 
will  always  enjoy  the  sight,  the  memory, 
or  the  study  of  a  noble  structure  without 
undue  anxiety  as  to  whether  he  is  right  or 
wrong.  Rightness  is  relative :  to  have  a 
trained  observation,  knowledge  of  princi- 
ples, and  a  sound  judgment  as  to  proprieties 
[12] 


Study  Greek  Architecture  First 

of  construction  and  design  is  to  be  able  to 
form  your  opinions  for  yourself;  and  to 
understand  that  you  come  nearer,  month 
by  month,  to  a  really  complete  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  seeing  clearly  what  is  good 
and  the  causes  of  its  goodness,  and  also  the 
not-so-good  which  is  there,  inevitably  there, 
as  a  part  of  the  goodness  itself 

It  will  be  well,  therefore,  to  take  for  our 
first  study  some  buildings  of  that  class 
about  which  there  is  the  smallest  difference 
of  opinion  among  modern  lovers  of  art, 
namely,  the  early  Greek  temples.  There 
is  no  serious  dispute  as  to  the  standing  of 
the  Greek  architecture  previous  to  the  year 
300  B.  c,  as  the  most  perfect  thing  that 
decorative  art^  has  produced.  It  is  ex- 
tremely simple  :  a  fact  which  makes  it  the 
more  fit  for  our  present  purpose :  but  this 
simplicity  is  to  be  taken  as  not  having  led 
to  bareness,  lack  of  incident,  lack  of  charm  : 


■  Decorative  Art:  Kne  art  which  is  applied  to  the  beautify- 
ing of  that  which  has  primarily  a  useful  purpose.  Architecture 
is  the  most  complex  of  the  decorative  arts,  and  for  this  reason, 
and  because  it  is  also  carried  out  on  a  large  scale  with  great 
possibilities  of  noble  effects,  the  most  importent  of  the  decora- 
tive arts. 


[13] 


Early  Greek  Design 

it  has  merely  served  to  give  the  Greek  artist 
such  an  easy  control  over  the  different  de- 
tails and  their  organization  into  a  complete 
whole,  that  the  admiration  of  all  subse- 
quent ages  has  been  given  to  his  produc- 
tions. 

It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  nothing 
of  this  complete  beauty  is  now  to  be  seen 
above  ground.  Plate  I  shows  the  famous 
temple  at  Pssstum  on  the  west  coast  of 
Campania,  southeast  of  Naples:  the  temple 
called  that  of  Poseidon,  to  which  god 
(called  by  the  Romans,  Neptune)  the  an- 
cient town  which  stood  on  this  site  was 
dedicated.  This  is  the  most  nearly  well 
preserved  of  the  Doric  ^  temples,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  small  building  in 
Athens  called  the  Theseion,  or  Theseum, 
(see  Plate  III),  and  it  is  larger  and  more  in- 
teresting than  that.  Plate  II  gives  the 
Parthenon  at  Athens  from  the  northwest 

*  Doric :  Belonging  to  the  Dorians,  a  Greek  people.  The 
term,  Doric  style,  was  first  applied  to  the  very  few  Roman 
buildings  and  parts  of  buildings  of  which  the  basement  story 
of  the  Theatre  of  Marcellus  and  that  of  the  Colosseum  at  Rome, 
are  good  instances.  When  the  Grecian  buildings  of  Athens, 
Girgenti  and  Psestum  were  studied,  the  term  was  extended  to 
them;  and  these  give  us  what  we  call  Grecian-Dorio. 

[14] 


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PARTHENON,   ATHENS,    FROM   THE    NORTHWEST. 


PARTHENON,    ATHENS,    FROM    THE    NORTHEAST. 


PLATE     II. 


Ruins  are  not  Works  of  Design 

and  from  the  northeast.  This  building  by 
common  agreement  of  modern  students  was 
the  most  perfect  in  design  and  the  most 
highly  elaborated  in  detail  of  all  the  Doric 
temples  of  early  time.  The  Parthenon  as 
we  see  it  now  in  its  decay,  dominating  the 
town  of  Athens  from  the  top  of  its  rock  or 
looked  at  close  at  hand,  lighted  by  the  Gre- 
cian sun  or  by  the  moon  for  those  who  are 
romantically  inclined,  is  unquestionably  a 
most  picturesque  and  charming  ruin ;  it  is 
imposing  in  its  mass,  interesting  still  in  its 
details,  and  invested,  of  course,  with  an  im- 
measurably great  tradition,  historical  and 
poetic.  That  fact  must  not  be  forgotten  for 
a  moment :  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  this  admiration,  this 
enthusiasm,  is  not  given  to  the  work  of  art. 
It  is  not  at  all  to  produce  such  a  ruin  as  we 
now  see  that  the  Grecian  artist  thought  and 
toiled.  Admire  the  ruin  to  your  heart's 
content :  but  be  careful  that  you  do  not 
allow  too  much  of  this  romantic  association 
to  enter  into  your  love  of  the  artistic  entity, 
of  the  lost  Parthenon,  which  we  have  to 
[15] 


Early  Greek  Design 

create  out  of  the  air,  as  it  were.  And  be- 
ware of  the  admiration  of  ruins  as  you 
would  of  the  "  tone  "  given  to  a  picture  by 
time :  it  is  not  that  which  the  artist  pro- 
posed to  himself  or  even  thought  of,  and  it 
is  the  artist's  purpose  that  you  must  ask 
for,  always.  That  is  the  first  thing.  Until 
you  are  sure  you  know  that  purpose,  fully, 
it  will  not  do  to  find  fault  with  the  work 
of  art,  or  even  to  praise  it  too  unreservedly. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  extremely  im- 
portant to  consider  the  probable  ancient 
surroundings  of  the  building  in  question. 
The  upper  figure  of  Plate  III  may  show,  not 
only  the  interesting  building  itself  from  a 
good  point  of  view  and  with  its  peculiar- 
ities strongly  accentuated  (as  is  pointed  out 
below),  but  also  how,  except  for  its  sculpture 
and  coloring,  the  temple  must  have  been 
seen  b}''  the  Athenians  in  the  days  of 
Conon.  The  modern  houses  are  very  like 
what  the  ancient  houses  must  have  been, 
for,  although  the  ancient  houses  had  even 
less  door  and  window-opening  upon  the 
street  and  more  upon  a  court  or  yard,  yet 
[16] 


The  Theseion  is   More  Than  a  Ruin 

we  may  imagine  ourselves  in  such  a  yard  of 
antiquity,  and  the  red-tiled  roofs,  the  home- 
made chimney,  the  rough  and  unkempt 
aspect  of  the  whole  may  be  assumed  to 
stand  very  well  for  the  humbler  quarters 
of  Athens  in  antiquity.  This  temple  also 
is  a  ruin  :  but  the  fact  that,  as  seen  in  Plate 
III,  there  are  still  visible  the  sculptures  of 
the  metopes/  and  the  fact  that  the  roof  of 
the  pteroma^  is  still  in  place,  so  that  there 
is  no  sunshine  coming  down  behind  the 
columns  where  sunshine  was  never  meant 
to  be — these  conditions  go  far  to  give  us  a 
peep  at  the  building  as  it  stood  in  those 
great  days.  No  other  photograph  can  give 
a  better  idea  of  how  the  columns  are  set 
closer  near  the  corner ;  nor  a  better  idea  of 


^  Metope :  The  word  means  originally  the  space  between  two 
triglyphs  (see  definition  of  entablature) ;  but  is  generally  applied 
in  English  writing  to  the  slab  or  block  of  stone  which  fills  this 
space  in  the  Doric  temples  known  to  us.  It  is  evident  that  the 
outer  surface  of  this  block  was  sometimes  painted,  and  it  is 
known  that  it  was  sometimes  carved  in  low  relief,  as  at 
Selinuntum,  of  which  temple  sculptured  slabs  are  preserved  in 
the  museum  at  Palermo  ;  while  those  of  the  Theseion  and  the 
Parthenon  were  in  very  high  relief. 

'  Pteroma :  The  side  or  flank,  hence,  in  modern  usage,  the 
space  covered  by  the  roof  of  a  portico,  and  therefore  including 
the  columns  and  intercolumniations,  although  in  general  usage 
it  applies  only  to  the  passage  between  the  colxuuns  and  the  wall 
behind. 

[17] 


Early  Greek  Design 

the  reasons  for  this  peculiarity  ;  for  the  sky 
is  seen  between  the  columns  at  the  right 
hand ;  and  the  dark  wall  of  the  naos  ^  in 
the  same  relative  position  on  the  left  hand, 
and  the  chief  cause  for  the  smaller  inter- 
columniation  at  the  corners  is  obvious 
enough,  as  shown  below  in  connection  with 
the  model  Plate  IV. 

Look  back  at  Plate  I,  and  Plate  III, 
upper  figure,  and  note  that  these  buildings 
have  six  columns  on  the  front  instead  of 
eight  and,  therefore,  according  to  the  gen- 
eral proportions  of  Greek  temples,  should 
have  a  greater  height  relatively  to  width 
than  the  Parthenon,  Plate  II.  Note,  farther, 
that  the  columns  are  very  much  higher  and 
more  slender  in  the  octastyle^  Parthenon 
than  in  the  Italian  hexastyle^  building, 
and  the  relative  height  of  the  entablature  * 

■  Naos :  Called  also  cella :  the  enclosed  part  of  a  Greek 
temple,  that  which  has  solid  walls  and  may  be  divided  into 
two  or  three  rooms  :  also  sometimes  the  larger  of  these  sub- 
divisions as  distinguished  from  the  Opisthodomos,  or  Treasury. 

'  Octastyle  :  Having  eight  columns,  when  said  of  a  portico  ; 
having  eight  columns  in  front,  when  said  of  a  temple  or  similar 
building. 

*  Hexastyle  :  Having  six  columns  ;  as  in  the  case  of  octastyle 
for  eight. 

*  Entablature :  In  a  piece  of  classic  architecture,  the  three 
horizontal  members  above  the  columns  when  these  three  are 

[18] 


Some  Diversity  in  the  Doric  Style 

greater,  or  as  one  to  two  and  a  half  in 
Psestum,  one  to  three  in  Athens.  The 
Doric  Order  ^  is  capable  of  just  about  as 
much  diversity  in  relative  heights  and 
other  dimensions  as  is  shown  here. 

The  comparatively  short  and  thick  col- 
umns of  the  Italian  temple  are  characteris- 
tic of  an  earlier  and  less  developed  style 
than  that  denoted  by  the  higher  and  more 


taken  together  as  forming  one  part  of  the  order.  The  entabla- 
ture consists  of  architrave  or  epistyle,  immediately  above  the 
columns,  the  frieze,  and  the  cornice,  each  of  which  may  have 
several  decorative  subdivisions.  Thus  in  the  Ionic  Order  the 
epistyle  may  be  divided  horizontally  into  three  surfaces  pro- 
jecting slightly  more  and  more  from  the  bottom  upward.  The 
frieze  in  the  Doric  style  (Roman  or  Greek)  is  divided  by 
triglyphs  into  metopes ;  and  in  the  other  orders  has  often 
sculptured  ornament.  The  varieties  of  form  in  the  cornice  are 
very  considerable.  A  triglyph  is  one  of  those  blocks  cut  with 
vertical  channels,  which  seem  to  rest  ujion  the  epistyle  and  to 
support  the  cornice.  The  metopes  are  the  spaces  between ;  and 
also  the  non-structural  slabs  or  blocks  which  fill  those  spaces. 
In  a  very  few  instances  the  entablature  is  irregular  in  some  re- 
si)ect;  thus  the  portico  of  Caryatides,  PI.  VI,  may  be 
said  to  have  no  frieze,  but  epistyle  and  cornice  only.  In 
Roman  work  the  whole  entablature  is  occasionally  arched  up, 
bent  to  a  curve,  as  in  a  temple  at  Baalbec,  and  as  in  a  palace  at 
Spalato. 

'  Doric  Order :  In  Greek  and  Roman  architecture,  and  in 
those  neo-classic  styles  founded  upon  antiquity,  the  Order  is 
the  unit  of  design  and  consists  of  one  complete  column  (shaft 
and  capital,  with  base,  if  any,  and  pedestal,  if  any)  and  so  much 
of  the  entablature  as  may  be  sufficient  to  show  its  whole  char- 
acter. The  Grecian  Doric  Order  alluded  to  in  the  text,  is 
peculiar  in  the  shape  and  number  of  the  channels  of  the  shaft, 
in  the  echinos-shaped  bell  of  the  capital,  in  the  square  and  un- 
adorned abacus,  in  having  no  base,  in  having  the  frieze  broken 
up  into  short  lengths  by  the  triglyphs,  and  in  the  minor  details 
depending  upon  the  above. 

[:i9\ 


E^rly  Greek  Design 

slender  columns  of  the  Parthenon.  In  like 
manner  the  comparatively  great  thickness 
of  the  superstructure  in  the  Psestum  tem- 
ple, giving  a  very  broad  architrave,^  and  a 
still  broader  frieze  ^  is  also  suggestive  of  an 
earlier  date.  Now  it  is  agreed  that  the  more 
lofty  and  slender  proportions  of  the  Order 
of  the  Parthenon  must  have  given  to  the 
original  building  a  charm  beyond  that  given 
by  the  stumpy  proportions  of  the  Psestum 
temple  :  but  it  is  also  undeniable  that  many 
lovers  of  architecture,  of  this  as  of  other 
epochs  and  styles,  love  especially  the  early 
work,  that  which  is  commonly  known  as 
archaic.  It  is  exactly  like  the  great  enthu- 
siasm excited  in  many  students  of  Italian 
art  by  the  earliest  paintings,  those  of  the 
primitifs :  in  each  case  the  very  single- 
minded  and  diligent  work  of  the  early  men 
has  a  charm  peculiarly  its  own. 

Although  the  Parthenon  is,  as  mentioned 
above,  a  ruin  and  nothing  else,  there  are 
still  to  be  found  in  the  shattered  stones  of 


*  Architrave :    *  Frieze  :  for  these  terms  see  footnote  Entab- 
lature above. 


[20] 


Refinements  in  Doric  Buildings 

that  ruin  a  certain  part  of  that  theoretical 
beauty,  that  imagined  glory  of  the  destroyed 
work  of  art,  which  we  are  gradually  build- 
ing up  in  our  thoughts.  Thus  it  is  in  the 
existing  ruins  that  there  have  been  discov- 
ered those  curious  curves  where  straight 
lines  had  been  supposed  to  exist.  If  you 
stand  at  one  end  of  the  stylobate  ^  and  look 
along  it  towards  the  other  end,  you  will  see 
that  it  curves  upward  in  the  middle  with  a 
decided  convex  sweep.  (See  Plate  III.)  If 
you  raise  yourself  on  a  scaffolding  and  look 
along  the  underside  of  the  architrave  you 
will  find  that  that  also  rises  in  a  curve,  not 
exactly  parallel  or  concentric  to  that  of  the 
stylobate,  but  nearly  so.  Furthermore  you 
will  notice,  if  you  walk  about  the  temple 
and  examine  it  closely,  that  the  two  outer- 
most columns  of  the  front  are  much  nearer 
together  than  the  others,  as  noted  above  in 
Plate  III :  or  that,  in  other  words,  the  three 
columns  which  form  the  corner  are  grouped 


*  stylobate  :  The  flat,  continnous  surface  upon  which  the  col- 
umns stand,  as  in  a  colonnade.  When  the  whole  flat  surface 
forming  the  floor  of  the  passageway  (see  Pteroma)  is  consid- 
ered, the  word  stereobate  is  employed. 

[21] 


Eiarly  Greek  Design 

much  more  closely  than  are  the  others. 
Furthermore,  it  has  been  discovered  by  min- 
ute measurements  that  these  columns  slope 
inward  a  very  little.  Of  course,  it  has  al- 
ways been  known  that  the  very  visible 
diminution  of  the  shaft  in  thickness  from 
the  bottom  to  the  top  is  not  according  to 
straight  lines  (that  is  to  say,  that  the  shafts 
are  not  conical)  but  is  according  to  a  very 
slow  and  hardly  perceptible  curve  which  we 
call  the  entasis.  Great  folios  of  carefully 
drawn  plates  have  been  devoted  to  the  exact 
curvature  of  the  entasis  and  to  the  more  re- 
cently discovered  irregularities  :  and  a  mi- 
nute series  of  measurements  have  been  made, 
by  which  the  whole  amount  of  the  irregu- 
larity in  any  one  case  is  now  easily  ascer- 
tainable. This  is  one  of  the  many  elements 
out  of  which  we  have  to  make  up  our  gen- 
eral appreciation  of  the  building,  our  appre- 
ciation of  the  existence  and  the  character 
of  these  slopes,  curves,  risings,  sinkings, 
slopings :  all  of  them,  it  is  clear,  planned 
in  the  most  careful  and  elaborate  way,  and 
as  the  result  of  many  previous  experiments. 
[22] 


The  Purpose  of  Those  Refinements 

Their  object  is,  of  course,  to  add  to  the  charm 
of  the  building,  to  give  it  in  one  case  the 
effect  of  being  very  broad  in  the  base  and 
therefore  very  secure  and  permanent — in 
another  case,  to  prevent  any  possible  appear- 
ance of  sagging  or  depression  in  the  middle 
of  the  long  horizontal  lines ;  in  another 
case  still,  to  substitute  the  subtile  grace  of  a 
slight  and  almost  imperceptible  curve  for 
the  harshness  of  a  straight  line.  Still 
another  thing  is  traceable  in  these  ruins : 
the  unceasing  care  with  which  the  work 
was  done,  the  way  in  which  the  separate 
drums  or  solid  blocks,  of  which  the  shafts 
of  the  columns  are  made  up,  were  ground 
together,  one  upon  another,  until  they  fitted 
with  but  the  slightest  visible  or  tangible 
separation.  The  channeling  or  grooving  of 
the  shafts  was  evidently  done  after  the 
drums  had  been  put  into  place,  and  it  is 
highly  probable  that  the  bells  ^  of  the  capi- 
tals were  also  finished,  or  received  their  final 

'  Bell :  That  part  of  the  capital  of  a  column  which  is  between 
the  necking  below  and  the  abacus  above  The  term  is  applied 
also  to  the  imagined  general  form  of  the  same  member  apart 
from  the  ornamentation  ;  thus  the  bell  of  a  Corinthian  capital  is 
to  be  traced  beneath  the  acanthus  leaves. 

[23] 


Early  Greek  Design 

very  delicate  curvature,  after  the  blocks  out 
of  which  they  had  been  cut  had  been  set, 
and  indeed  after  the  superincumbent  block, 
the  abacus,  had  been  lowered  upon  each 
one  of  them. 

Another  feature  in  this  remarkable  de- 
sign is  to  be  traced  in  the  ruins,  and  was 
much  more  plainly  discoverable  at  an  ear- 
lier, though  still  recorded  and  well-known, 
date :  namely,  the  original  painted  adorn- 
ment of  the  building,  in  strong  primary 
colors.  In  the  temples  built  of  soft  and 
rough  stone,  like  that  in  Plate  I,  there  is 
known  to  have  been  a  thin  coat  of  fine 
plastering  spread  over  the  whole  surface, 
and  the  final  delicacy  of  curve  and  sharp- 
ness of  edge  must  have  been  wrought  in 
that  plaster  even  more  accurately  than  in 
the  stone  beneath.  But  in  the  Parthenon, 
built  entirely  of  fine-grained  and  hard 
marble,  no  such  coating  was  necessary,  and 
the  paint  was  applied  directly  to  the  crys- 
talline surface  itself  This  painting  cov- 
ered very  large  parts  of  the  exterior,  nor  is 
it  probable  that  any  single  foot  of  the 
[24] 


.-  -\ 


THESEUM    (THIOSEIOX)    ATHENS. 


CURVATURE    OF    STYLOBATE    OF    PARTHENON 
PLATE    III. 


io 

S^ 

a 

K 
H 

o 

w 

Q 
O 

Q 
W 
DJ 
O 
H 

M 

a 


Doric  Buildings  Were  Painted 

marble  was  left  in  its  original  whiteness. 
Where  the  solid  coating  of  red  or  blue 
paint  was  not  applied,  the  marble  seems  to 
have  been  tinted  a  dull  yellow,  as  by  the 
application  of  wax  to  the  surface,  which 
wax,  if  melted  on  with  hot  irons,  would 
act  as  a  preservative  for  the  marble.  It  ap- 
pears then  that  all  modern  dreams  about 
the  whiteness  and  purity  and  abstract  love- 
liness of  the  Grecian  temples  are  mistaken. 
Browning's  Artemis  says  that,  always  ex- 
cepting Hera,  she  is  the  equal  of  any  god- 
dess of  them  all  — 

" surpassed 

By  none  whose  temples  whiten  this  the  world." 

The  Artemis  of  any  Greek  poet  would 
have  used  a  different  phrase  :  to  her,  the 
temples  erected  to  the  gods  of  Olympus 
would  not  have  seemed  white  objects — they 
would  have  been  to  her  the  properly  sacrifi- 
cial and  devotional  embodiment  of  all  that 
was  splendid  and  gorgeous  in  the  arts  of 
men  at  that  time  :  sculptured  marble  and 
wrought  metal  indeed,  but  also  color  and 
[25] 


Early  Greek  Design 

gold  freely  and  even  lavishly  applied. 
Plate  IV  is  a  photograph  of  the  restored 
model  of  the  Parthenon  which  belongs  to 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New 
York,  the  restoration  of  which,  and  the 
whole  work,  is  due  to  Charles  Chipiez,  a 
well-known  and  very  competent  archae- 
ologist in  the  direction  of  classical  archi- 
tecture. But  this  restoration  is  extremely 
reserved  and  quiet ;  it  assumes  almost  noth- 
ing ;  it  is  restrained  quite  beyond  what  is 
to  be  expected  of  a  modern  enthusiast  in 
Greek  art.  If,  instead  of  this,  we  were  to 
study  the  careful  and  conscientious  draw- 
ings published  by  that  French  student  who 
has  made  a  special  study  of  the  buildings 
in  Epidauros  (Alphonse  de  Frasse)  or  in 
Olympia  (Victor  Laloux)  we  should  find 
the  decoration  by  means  of  painting  and 
by  the  application  of  golden  shields  or 
other  members  in  gilt  metal,  assumed  as 
very  much  more  elaborate  and  rich.  Thus 
the  restored  fagade  of  the  temple  of  Ascle- 
pios  at  Epidauros  and  that  of  the  temple  of 
Zeus  at  Olympia  are  shown  as  having  been 
[26] 


Conjectural  Restorations 

painted  in  the  most  elaborate  way,  with 
figure  subjects  of  conventionalized  form 
and  distribution  on  all  the  larger  flat  sur- 
faces, and  patterns  of  leafage  and  scroll- 
work on  the  small  ones.  It  is  known  that 
very  rich  mosaic  floors  existed  in  many  of 
these  cases,  and  known  also  that  the  ceil- 
ings, such  as  those  above  the  open  galleries 
(pteroma)  behind  the  great  colonnades, 
were  adorned  very  richly,  sometimes  with 
painted  and  gilded  terra  cotta. 

There  is  still  to  be  considered  the  sculp- 
tured ornament,  painted,  indeed,  in  vivid 
colors,  but  also  planned  with  care,  and 
executed  with  vast  knowledge,  minute 
skill,  and  what  seems  to  us  faultless  good 
taste.  In  the  Doric  temples  there  was  no 
leaf-sculpture,  no  scroll-work,  no  carved 
ornaments  of  any  sort :  we  shall  find  a  dif- 
ferent condition  of  things  in  the  Ionic 
style,  but  even  in  the  elaborate  and  very 
costly  Parthenon  there  were  only  the  human 
and  animal  forms,  expressed  in  statues 
and  reliefs  made  as  perfect  as  was  possible 
to  the  artist  of  the  time.  Some  temples 
[27] 


Early  Greek  Design 

had  none  of  this :  others  had  the  metopes 
of  the  frieze  (see  footnote,  Entablature) 
carved  with  high  reliefs :  others  had  reliefs 
in  the  great  triangular  panel  of  the  pedi- 
ment :  ^  others  again  had  this  panel  filled 
with  statues,  standing  and  seated,  forming 
a  group,  and  expressing  some  legend  of 
Greek  historical  and  religious  life.  Fi- 
nally, there  are  instances  of  long  unbroken 
bands  of  sculpture  in  very  low  relief  The 
Parthenon  had  all  of  these  :  a  horizontal 
band  along  the  top  of  each  wall  of  the  naos 
filled  with  bas-reliefs ;  high  reliefs  in  the 
metopes,  statues  in  both  pediments. 

If,  then,  our  opinion  of  ancient  Greek 
architecture  is  to  be  formed,  and  a  relative 
judgment  of  any  two  fine  specimens  of  it  is 
to  be  reached,  we  have  to  study  with  some 
care  what  is  known  about  their  appearance 
and  character  when  intact.  What  statues 
did  they  have  ?  What  high  reliefs  in  square 
panels,  or  bas-reliefs   in  long  and  narrow 

'  Pediment :  The  triangular  wall  at  the  end  of  the  low  pitched 
roof,  in  a  Greek  or  Roman  bnilding.  The  sunken  panel  alone, 
above  the  horizontal  cornice  and  beneath  the  raking  cornice,  is 
called  the  Tympanum,  or,  in  Greek  temples,  often  the  Aetos 
('atrdf)    or  Eagle. 

[28] 


The  Sculpture  of  Doric  Buildings 

strips  ?  Of  what  value  were  these  sculp- 
tures to  the  general  effect  of  the  structure  ? 
What  seem  to  have  been  the  proportions 
of  the  building?  If  we  can  call  up  an 
image  of  it  before  the  mind,  is  this  an 
image  of  perfect  proportion,  or  is  it  clear 
that  greater  height  or  other  change  in  di- 
mension would  have  been  an  advantage? 
It  is  true  that  we  generally  accept  Greek 
buildings  of  the  best  time  as  faultless  :  but 
it  is  also  true  that  there  were  great  differ- 
ences among  them.  The  hexastyle  temple 
is  necessarily  more  high  and  more  narrow 
than  the  octastyle  building.  If  we  con- 
sider that  the  temple  with  six  columns  at 
each  end  has  only  thirteen  on  each  side 
(that  is,  eleven  without  counting  the  corner 
columns  which  form  part  of  the  two  fronts) 
while  the  wider  Parthenon  has  seventeen 
columns  on  each  side,  we  find  that  the 
comparative  height  of  the  temple  of  Posei- 
don at  Psestum,  or  of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  or 
of  Athena  at  Sunion,  is  very  much  greater 
when  seen  from  one  corner,  in  perspective, 
than  that  of  the  Athens  temple.  Suppose 
[29] 


Early  Greek  Design 

that  we  trace  from  Plate  IV  so  niuch  of  the 
colonnade  as  will  leave  out  two  of  the  end 
columns  and  four  of  those  on  the  flank,  and 
then  put  a  corresponding  pediment  and  en- 
tablature, which  proportion  shall  we  prefer  ? 
Which  building  is  nearer  to  perfection  ? 
The  Parthenon,  as  the  very  flower  and 
glory  of  Greece  ?  If  so,  why  was  the  hex- 
astyle  form  so  very  much  more  common  ? 
There  is  only  one  other  octastyle  Doric  tem- 
ple known:  and,  if  it  be  said  as  an  ex- 
planation, that  of  course  the  heights  of  col- 
umn and  entablature  would  be  varied  for 
the  change  from  the  8x17  peristyle  to  the 
6x13  type,  the  question  still  remains  for  us 
— was  it  practicable  to  make  an  octastyle 
temple  as  perfect  in  proportion  as  were 
numerous  hexastyle  examples,  large  and 
small,  scattered  over  Greece,  Southern  Italy 
and  Sicily  ?  These  doubts  are  suggested  in 
order  that  the  reader  may  see  in  this  com- 
mencement of  his  studies  what  kind  of  un- 
settled and  never  to  be  settled  questions 
will  come  before  him  at  every  step  of  his 
inquiry.  He  will  be  equally  uncertain 
[30] 


What  is  the  Standard  of  Excellence  *? 

whether  he  is  to  prefer  the  east  end  of 
Reims  cathedral  or  that  of  Bourges,  or  that 
of  Paris.  As  with  the  important  Greek 
temples,  so  the  Gothic  cathedrals  just 
named  are  the  very  flower  of  their  epoch 
and  represent  in  the  highest  perfection 
known  to  us  their  respective  styles.  So 
much  the  student  will  be  able  to  discover 
without  too  great  a  mental  effort :  and  once 
sure  of  this  he  will  understand  that  no  fur- 
ther mental  effort  in  this  direction  is  even 
desirable,  and  that  comparison  among 
works  of  very  high  excellence  can  never 
cease — can  never  be  brought  to  an  end  by 
any  authority  or  any  outside  decision  what- 
soever, and  that  here  the  student's  own 
preferences  must  be  perforce  his  only  guide. 
There  is  still  one  point  of  view  from 
which  the  Greek  temples  must  be  regarded. 
It  is  to  many  persons  the  most  important 
consideration  of  all.  Those  who  are  realists 
in  architecture  are  always  inclined  to  favor 
the  utilitarian  plan  and  the  logical  struc- 
ture and  to  hold  these  as  of  even  greater 
value  than  the  abstract  proportion  or  the 
[31] 


Early  Greek  Design 

beauty  of  detail.  On  the  other  hand, 
writers  like  Ruskin  never  suggest  the  im- 
portance of  the  destination  of  the  edifice, 
nor  its  merit  as  a  piece  of  intelligent  build- 
ing :  nor  do  the  students  of  proportion,  as 
in  Neo-classic^  buildings,  think  much  of 
this  matter.  In  the  case  of  the  Greek 
temples  this  practical  consideration  can  be 
stated  in  a  very  few  words.  No  large 
roofed  hall  was  ever  desired ;  no  interior 
effect,  as  of  a  great  vaulted  room,  was 
thought  of;  no  room  for  a  congregation  or 
an  audience  within  the  solid  walls  was  ever 
proposed.  The  naos  of  the  temple  served 
only  to  house  the  great  image  of  the 
Divinity  with  other  minor  statues  of  the 
same  or  of  kindred  significance  together 
with  the  gifts  presented  to  the  shrine. 
The  people  gathered  in  front  of  the  great 
portico ;  public  sacrifices  were  performed 
there  ;  the  temple  itself,  like  the  choir  ^  of  a 

>  Neo-classio  :  Studied  from  Greco-Roman  monnmente  ;  said 
of  a  work  of  art  or  of  a  style.  The  neo-classic  architecture  of 
Europe  begins  about  1420  in  Italy,  (See  Risorgimento  and 
Renaissance. ) 

*  Choir :  Properly,  the  space  in  a  church  reserved  for  the 
clergy  and  their  assistants,  especially  the  singers:  henoe,  by  ex- 
tension, 

[32] 


Design  as  Based  Upon  Utility 

Christian  church  long  afterwards,  was  for 
the  priests  alone.  Moreover,  the  buildings 
of  different  character  left  us  by  the  Greeks, 
even  in  ruins,  are  so  very  few  that  we  are 
unable  to  establish  with  certainty  their 
character ;  and  those  which,  like  the 
famous  Meeting-hall  (Telesterion)  at  Eleu- 
sis,  must  have  accommodated  a  number  of 
persons  seated  to  listen  to  the  words  of 
speakers,  were  obviously  of  extreme  sim- 
plicity— involving  no  new  principles  of 
plan  or  of  design.  Next,  as  to  the  con- 
struction :  that  as  the  photographs  show, 
was  of  the  simplest  possible  character.  Up- 
rights of  stone  carried  horizontal  beams  of 
stone,  and  these  again  cross-beams  to  span 
the  width  of  the  portico,  which  cross-beams 
might  be  of  stone,  or  of  wood  encased  per- 
haps with  terra  cotta  slabs.  As  for  the 
interior  of  the  naos,  in  the  larger  temples  it 
was  divided  into  a  wider  middle  hall  and 

I — The  enclosare  itself  which  is  sometimes  very  massive  and 
elaborate,  a  high  stone  wall  sculptured  or  otherwise  richly 
adorned,  and 

II — That  part  of  a  cruciform  church  which  contains  this  en- 
closure, namely,  the  fourth  arm  of  the  cross,  that  one  which 
extends  generally  towards  the  east  from  the  meeting  of  the  nave 
and  transept. 

[33] 


Early  Greek  Design 

two  narrower  ones,  like  the  nave  and  aisles 
of  Christian  churches  :  and  all  roofed  with 
timber,  in  simple  framing,  which  carried  a 
roofing  of  tile :  but  whether  the  roof  wag 
always  complete  and  solid,  or  whether,  as 
some  persons  think,  a  part  of  this  was  often 
omitted  so  as  to  allow  the  light  of  day  to 
enter  from  above,  is  uncertain. 

It  appears  then  that,  as  suggested  in  the 
first  page  of  this  chapter,  the  requirements 
and  the  structure  of  the  Grecian  religious 
building  were  so  very  simple  that  no  long 
examination  into  the  matter  is  needed  to 
show  the  connection  between  the  plan  and 
the  exterior  effect,  or  between  the  structure 
and  the  exterior  effect.  We  have  no  Greek 
interiors  to  study  and  the  exteriors  at  once 
tell  us  how  the  whole  structure  was  brought 
into  being,  and  also  that  it  could  not  fail  to 
serve  its  daily  uses  in  a  very  perfect 
manner. 


[84] 


CHAPTER  II 

LATER  GREEK   AND   ROMAN   DESIGN 

In  chapter  one  there  was  discussion  of 
the  simplest  Greek  architecture — that  which 
we  call  Doric — which  reached  its  culminat- 
ing point  about  450  b.  c.  Considering  now, 
very  briefly,  the  later  and  more  elaborate 
Greek  buildings  we  find  that  they  were 
more  generally  of  the  Ionic  ^  style,  that  the 
most  important  of  them  were  built  along 
the  Asiatic  coast  by  the  Greek  colonists 
there,  and  finally,  that  not  one  of  the 
larger  monuments  remains  in  any  such  con- 
dition that  it  can  be  seen  even  as  an 
attractive  ruin.  The  only  important  Ionic 
building  which  we  can  find  impressive,  as 
it  stands,  is  the  Erectheion  at  Athens,  and 
this,  though  a  very  small  building,  is 
admitted    to    contain    the   most  exquisite 

'  Ionic  :  Belonging  to  the  Ionian  Greeks  ;  lonio  style,  that 
characterized  by  capitals  adorned  with  volutes,  shafts  much 
more  slender  than  in  the  Doric  style  and  decorated  by  flut'Ce  in- 
stead of  channels ;  these  flutes  having  a  nearly  semi-oirculai 
section  and  being  separated  by  narrow  fillets  or  flat  bands  iii» 
stead  of  meeting  at  the  sharp  arris. 

[35] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

details  of  the  Ionic  style  which  are  known 
to  us.  Plate  V  gives  two  views  of  the 
Erectheion  in  its  present  condition,  and 
Plate  VI  gives  the  small  portico  of  carya- 
tides on  the  south  flank  of  the  same  build- 
ing. The  views  given  here  show  the  curious 
and  entirely  unexampled  relation  of  these 
different  parts  to  one  another.  The  full 
significance  of  this  combination  of  small 
apartments  is  not  understood. 

As  a  general  thing  the  Ionic  temples 
were  not  different  in  purpose  from  the 
Doric  temples ;  they  have  therefore  the 
same  plan  and  the  same  simple  structure ; 
but  they  have  a  much  more  elaborate 
decorative  treatment.  Thus,  we  find  here 
architectural  sculpture,  properly  so  called, 
introduced  into  the  building.  Plate  VII 
gives  a  number  of  separate  details  of  Ionic 
buildings,  and  it  will  be  readily  seen  that 
here  an  influence  was  at  work  far  different 
from  that  which  ordained  the  absolutely 
unmodified  square-edged  and  formal  Doric 
building  depending  upon  proportion  and 
upon  brilliant  color ;  and  that  here  con- 
[36] 


RRECHTHKUM    (ERFCHTHEION)    ATHENS.    FROM   THE    EAST. 


ERECHTHEUM.  ATHENS,  FROM  THE  NORTH,  SHOWING  NORTH  PORTICC 
PLATE  V. 


ERECHTHEUM,    PORTICO    OF    CARYATIDES.     FROM    S.    E. 


PLATE     VI. 


The  Sculpture  of  Ionic  Buildings 

ventionalized  leafage,  independently  de- 
signed curvatures  and  broken  lines,  and 
the  play  of  surface  given  by  slight  reliefs 
alternating  continually  with  smooth  flat 
planes,  are  all  introduced.  If,  farther,  we 
look  back  to  Plate  VI  and  note  the  treat- 
ment of  that  splendid  "  Portico  of  the 
Maidens,"  we  shall  see  what  Greek  thought 
was  capable  of  in  the  way  of  architectural 
sculpture.  Now  there  is  no  difference  of 
opinion  about  the  beauty  of  the  simple 
patterns,  the  anthemions,^  the  egg-and-dart  ^ 
mouldings,  and  the  like ;  but  the  very 
greatest  difference  of  opinion  exists  with 
regard  to  the  essential  propriety  of  human 
figures  used  as  architectural  members  of  such 
great  importance  as  these,  and  especially 
when  used  as  supports  for  a  superincum- 


'  Anthemion :  Any  floral  ornament  arranged  like  a  bouquet ; 
an  abstract  decoration  of  sprigs  or  branches  rising  from  a  com- 
mon point  and  separating  into  a  broader  head.  The  Greek 
anthemion,  often  called  palraette,  or  honeysuckle  ornament, 
seems  to  be  composed  of  slender  leaves  ;  whereas  the  anthemion 
in  Persian  and  other  Asiatic  art  is  often  a  group  of  flowers,  per- 
haps alternating  with  leaves. 

^  Egg-and-Dart :  An  ornament  consisting  of  an  alternation 
of  flattened  balls  or  bosses  with  sharp  pointed  members  like 
arrow  heads.  The  minor  details  vary  much  ;  but  it  is  usual  for 
the  flattened  e^s  to  be  surrounded  by  a  deep  cutting  or  a  raised 
rim,  and  for  the  arrow  points  to  be  alternated  with  these. 


[37] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

bent  weight.  The  author  of  this  volume 
admires  this  portico  as,  on  the  whole,  the 
finest  thing  left  us  by  Greek  architectural 
art,  combining  as  it  does  the  exquisite 
design  and  faultless  modelling  of  each 
separate  figure,  the  successful  combining 
into  a  group  of  the  four  maidens  of  the 
front,  or  of  the  whole  six,  with  their  super- 
incumbent weight  of  marble,  and  the  ex- 
quisite management  of  the  whole  structure 
so  that  it  shall  seem  light  and  yet  solid, 
fanciful  and  yet  dignified,  graceful  and 
yet  enduringly  noble.  Viollet-le-Duc  has 
pointed  out  ("  Entretiens,"  vol.  I.,  p.  293) 
how  successfully  the  figures  are  posed  and 
grouped  to  express  their  constructional  func- 
tion. There  are  excellent  judges  who  think 
differently  and  who  would  fain  ignore  the 
Pandrosion/  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  or 
relegate  it  to  the  position  of  a  mistake  made 
by  that  race  of  artists  who  were  of  all  races 
the  least  likely  to  make  mistakes.     In  this 

'  Pandroeion  :  The  shrine  temple  or  enclosure  of  the  nymph 
Pandrosos,  a  daughter  of  Cecrops.  It  is  known  that  this  was 
situated  close  to  the  temple  of  Erectheus,  and  therefore  the 
portico  of  Caryatides  on  the  south  flank  of  the  Erectheiou  has 
been  called  by  that  name. 

[38] 


•'tT.i^'^ir^rii^' 


r^?iiL^ '■"!.•."■:•;•:  "'r^fif.?^. 


g» 


di-^UMlMfc^kMbai^aMlbiAi 


,-t-^.  -  -.n^-,,^    ,.  -'r---.^::,^^  ^-j,.  ^ 


L^ 


TEMPIJ-;  OF  ATIIKNK  POLIAS.    PRIENE.    IN  ASIA  MINOR.  SOUTH  OF 

EPHESUS. 
(From  "Antiquities  of  Ionia,"  published  by  the  Dilettanti  Society.) 
PLATE    VIII. 


Sculpture  that  is  Architectural 

connection  it  may  be  noted  that  the  build- 
ings of  the  Ionic  style  offer  other  and  very 
curious  exceptions  to  the  more  usual  treat- 
ment of  sculpture  when  applied  to  build- 
ings. Thus  in  the  Erectheion  itself,  the 
principal  frieze  was  of  dark  gray  marble  in 
smooth  slabs,  upon  which  were  fixed  figures 
in  white  marble  in  vigorous  action,  the  scale 
small,  and  the  whole  composition  much 
more  nearly  pictorial  than  anything  in  the 
Parthenon.  Again,  in  the  balustrade  built 
about  the  little  temple  of  Victory  on  the 
edge  of  the  cliff  at  the  west  of  the  Acropolis, 
reliefs  of  moderate  projection  are  treated 
with  singular  vivacity  :  draped  goddesses  in 
active  and  easily  understood  movement. 

There  is  also  in  Greek  architecture  the 
beginning  of  the  Corinthian^  style,  of 
which  the  best  example  known  to  moderns 
is    the   totally   ruined   Tholos^  near   Epi- 


'  Corinthian :  Derived  from  Corinth ;  Corinthian  Order,  the 
latest  to  be  introduced  of  the  three  Grecian  Orders  and  the  one 
taken  over  most  readily  by  the  Romans.  The  details  are  very 
like  those  of  the  Ionic  Order  except  the  capital  which  is  the  first 
instance  in  antiquity  of  a  generally  concave  bell  invested  thickly 
with  leafage. 

'Tholos:  A  circular  building;  used  in  archaeological  writ- 
ing to  describe  one  whose  purpose  is  not  certainly  known,  as 


[39] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

dauros  in  the  Morea,  and  the  most  famil- 
iar, that  little  monument  in  Athens,  called 
the  Choragic  ^  Monument  of  Lysicrates : 
but  for  this  style  we  must  refer  to  the 
Roman  buildings  in  which  it  reached  its 
highest  development. 

When  we  come  to  consider  more  espe- 
cially the  traditional  repute  of  Grecian 
architecture,  and  the  influence  which  it 
has  had  in  shaping  the  opinions  of  what  we 
call  the  taste  of  sixty  generations  through- 
out all  the  European  lands,  we  are  brought 
at  once  to  the  work  of  the  Roman  imperial 
times.  All  the  nationalities — all  the  peo- 
ples— which  take  their  recent  and  existing 
social  form  and  opinions  in  art  and  litera- 
ture from  the  same  common  source,  the  all- 
embracing  empire  of  Rome,  have  taken  up 
Greek  art  as  they  have  taken  up  Greek 
literature,  as  their  chief  and  original  guide 
to  thought.     Indeed  it  has  been  shown,  and 


the  Tholos  of  Atreus  at  Mykenai,  generally  thought  to  be  a 
tomb;  that  near  Epidauros  thought  by  some  to  be  the  spring- 
house,  or  the  sacred  well  of  Asklepios. 

'  Choragic:  Having  to  do  with  the  Choragos,  the  manager  ci 
the  sacred  chorus  in  Athens.  This  was  an  honorary  poHt  iM- 
volTing  much  expense  and  labor  to  the  occupant. 


[40] 


Greek  Art  in  the  Roman  World 

is  accepted  as  true,  that  the  chief  mission 
of  the  great  Roman  empire  was  in  preserv- 
ing Hellenic  thought  in  art  and  literature 
for  the  future.  It  is  because  of  this,  as  has 
been  truly  said,  that  the  works  of  Homer 
and  ^schylus  and  of  the  Greek  sculptors 
are  plants  growing  in  our  own  garden. 
They  might  have  been,  and  but  for  the 
Roman  empire  they  would  be,  as  foreign  to 
the  modern  world  as  are  the  thought  and 
literature  of  Persia  and  India.  It  is  there- 
fore necessary  to  consider  what  Greek 
architecture  was  to  the  five  or  six  centuries 
which  followed  its  greatest  epoch,  and  again 
what  it  was  to  the  five  or  six  centuries 
which  followed  the  Middle  Ages,  in  Europe. 
From  450  b.  c.  to  400  a.  d.,  and  again  from 
1400  A.  D.  to  recent  times,  Greek  thought 
in  these  matters  of  fine  art  was  the  central 
thing,  the  spring  of  life.  To  the  peoples 
of  antiquity  Greek  architecture  was  a  guide 
and  inspiration,  even  under  the  much  al- 
tered conditions  of  a  foreign  and  irresistible 
rule :  it  was  constantly  and  uniformly  the 
model.  To  the  peoples  who  have  built  and 
[41] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

designed  since  the  fourteenth  century,  Greek 
art  has  been  of  weight  generally  as  acting 
through  the  Roman  styles  of  design,  for  it 
was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  the  actual  buildings  of 
the  Greek  peoples  in  Greece,  in  Asia  Minor, 
in  Italy,  and  in  Sicily,  came  to  be  known 
at  all :  but  it  was  the  Greek  part  in  Roman 
imperial  art  that  interested  those  Moderns. 
M  the  time  of  the  first  explorations  and 
discoveries  of  Stuart,  Revett,  Penrose,  Cock- 
erell,  Pennethorne,  Texier,  Renan,  and  the 
other  explorers  of  the  years  from  1760  to 
1850,  the  Greek  buildings  were  in  ruins. 
Not  one  single  roof  remained  in  place. 
Not  one  single  building  was  so  far  pre- 
served that  the  question  could  be  definitely 
answered  whether  the  temples  had  openings 
in  the  roofs  for  light  in  all  or  in  any  cases  : 
so  that  the  hypsethraP  theory  remains  a 
theory  only,  and  is  apparently  incapable  of 

'  Hypsethral.  Open  to  the  sky;  Hyi)8ethral  opening,  a  space 
uncovered,  part  of  a  Greek  temple,  perhaps  entirely  unroofed, 
perhaps  only  having  a  roof  partly  opened  in  sky-lighte. 
Hypsethral  Theory  :  any  one  of  several  opinions  as  to  the  possi- 
ble lighting  of  the  interior  of  a  temple  from  above,  either 
through  the  roof,  or  by  the  partial  omission  of  a  roof  so  as  to 
form  a  central  open  court. 

[42] 


Modern  Study  of  Greek  Buildings 

verification.  On  the  other  hand,  the  de- 
tails, not  only  the  mouldings  and  flutings 
and  channelings,  but  also  the  carving  in 
conventionalized  leafage,  were  plainly  to  be 
seen  and  were  capable  of  exciting  the  most 
enthusiastic  interest.  Thus  Plate  VIII 
shows  the  order  and  some  other  details  of 
the  Temple  of  Athena  Polias  at  Priene  in 
Asia  Minor  :  the  drawings  having  been  made 
about  1766  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Rich- 
ard Chandler  and  the  architect  Nicolas 
Revett.  The  general  plan  remained  doubt- 
ful, but  as  it  was  evident  that  the  buildings 
had  received  the  most  careful  thought,  with 
a  view  to  their  artistic  character,  and  as,  in 
the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  cen- 
turies, proportion  in  the  larger  distribu- 
tions of  the  building  was  esteemed  the 
most  important  element  of  architectural 
greatness,  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  the 
Greek  buildings  would  be  found  to  have 
ilso  such  excellence  of  proportion ;  and  it 
was  believed  that  this  particular  beauty 
could  be  enjoyed  and  judged  by  those  who 
were  patient  and  shrewd  enough  to  com- 
[43] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

bine  the  shattered  ruins  and  deduce  from 
them  the  original  form  of  the  buildings 
which  they  represent.  What  one  temple 
would  not  give,  another  supplied.  What 
one  temple  had  lost,  another  had  preserved. 
The  height  of  the  columns  could  be  ascer- 
tained and  the  diameters  of  their  shafts  at 
top  and  at  bottom :  the  distance  apart  of 
these  columns  could  be  ascertained :  the 
shapes  of  the  capitals  were  there  to  be 
noted :  the  entablature  could  be  restored 
by  a  mental  process  and  drawn  out  with 
almost  perfect  certainty.  In  this  way  the 
Greek  temples  were  put  into  shape  for  the 
modern  student.  No  such  student  had 
ever  seen  one  except  in  the  state  of  appar- 
ently hopeless  ruin :  but  no  such  student 
could  fail  to  grasp  the  evident  significance 
of  the  original  building  when  presented  to 
him  as  a  work  of  pure  form,  white  and 
colorless,  simple  in  construction,  refined  in 
detail  beyond  anything  that  later  times 
had  ever  achieved,  presumably  faultless  in 
proportion,  and  invested  with  minute  and 
delicate  decoration  in  conventionalized  leaf 
[44] 


Modern  Feeling  for  Greek  Buildings 

form  and  the  like.  We  have  then  to  keep 
in  mind  two  different  ways  of  judging  of 
the  Greek  buildings ;  first,  the  truly  his- 
torical and  also  truly  critical  way,  in  which 
we  take  them  as  buildings  once  very  real 
and  really  put  to  use,  made  rich  by  splen- 
did color  and  abounding  variety  of  detail, 
much  of  this  detail  being  in  paint  or  in 
gilding  alone  without  form  to  represent  it ; 
and  the  other  way,  the  modern  traditional 
way,  by  means  of  which  a  small  body  of 
writers  and  lecturers  swayed  architectural 
opinion  for  a  century  and  a  half,  and  until 
the  accurate  examination  and  close  study, 
given  to  the  subject  in  the  second  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  had  produced  its 
effect. 

In  the  later  chapters  of  this  little  book 
there  will  be  found  frequent  reference  to 
this  professional  or  technical  view  of  pure 
Greek  architecture.  Still,  what  has  been 
thought  about  it  since  its  discovery  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  is  of  less  importance  to 
our  inquiry  than  the  similar  assumptions 
with  regard  to  the  architecture  of  Imperial 
[46] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

Rome ;  for  that  architecture  influenced  the 
peoples  of  Europe  at  all  times  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  more  especially  at  the 
important  periods  of  revival  or  of  change 
in  the  fifth,  the  eleventh,  and  the  fifteenth 
centuries. 

The  early  architecture  of  Rome,  that  is 
of  the  city  and  its  neighborhood,  is  not 
under  consideration  ;  it  is  very  little  known 
even  to  modern  archaeologists,  and  it  was 
not  known  at  all  to  the  people  of  the  Ris- 
orgimento  ^  or  their  successors,  upon  whose 
work  the  modern  traditions  and  feeling 
about  architecture  have  been  based.  The 
buildings  which  directly  influenced  the 
world  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  then  that 
later  world   of  the   fifteenth  century,  the 

'  Bisorgimento :  In  Italian,  a  new  arising  ;  this  is  the  com- 
mon term  for  the  revival  of  classical  learning  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  coupled  with  the  advance  in  expres- 
sional  painting  and  sculpture  of  the  same  epoch,  and  developing 
later  in  the  revival  of  classical  design  in  architecture.  The 
term  Rinaacimento  (rebirth)  is  used  in  the  same  sense,  but  is 
apparently  rather  a  reflection  of  the  prevailing  French  word 
Benaissance.  It  would  be  well  if  English  writers  would  employ 
the  term  Risorgimento  for  the  Italian  movement  of  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  Renaissance  for  the  French 
movement  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  its  equivalente  in 
northern  Europe.  As  for  Spain,  in  which  the  classical  revival 
followed  very  closely  upon  that  of  Italy,  the  term  Renacimiento 
seems  to  correspond  very  closely  to  the  Italian  Risorgimento 
and  the  French  Renaissance. 

[46] 


Growth  of  Roman  Architecture 

time  of  Italian  imitation  of  antiquity,  were 
those  of  the  early  Emperors.  There  was,  as 
has  been  discovered  within  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century,  a  special  art  introduced  in  the 
reign  of  Augustus,  a  beautiful  art  made  up 
of  sculpture  not  exclusively  Greek  in  char- 
acter ;  and,  in  its  architectural  form,  of  an 
enlarged  and  more  decorative  handling  of 
the  Greek  system  of  design.  In  both  of 
these  innovations  some  loss  in  refinement 
comes  with  the  gain  in  splendor  and  in 
utility  :  but  we  can  see  this  Augustan  arch- 
itecture to  have  been  a  splendid  decorative 
art.  It  is  also  true  that  somewhat  more  of 
it  than  we  now  see  remained  in  place,  and 
nearly  complete,  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  great  buildings  which  partly  remain  to 
us  from  the  Imperial  epoch  are  generally 
later  than  the  time  of  Augustus.  The  fa- 
mous Pantheon  (see  Plate  IX),  as  we  now 
have  it,  with  its  huge  rotunda,  dates  from 
the  time  of  Hadrian  (117-138  a.  d.)  :  the 
magnificent  Forum  of  Trajan  with  its  ac- 
cessories, a  group  of  buildings  inconceiv- 
ably vast  and  splendid,  was  completed 
[47] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

during  the  same  administration  of  Ha- 
drian. The  best  preserved  Roman  memo- 
rial arch,  which  is  also  fortunately  very 
rich  in  sculpture,  that  of  Benevento  in 
South  Italy,  was  also  built  after  Trajan's 
death  and  in  the  time  of  Hadrian  :  the  best 
preserved  buildings  of  Palmyra  and  of  the 
North-African  cities  are  of  the  time  of  the 
Antonines,  those  of  Heliopolis  (Baalbec)  of 
the  same  epoch  and  later.  The  temples  on 
the  old  Forum — the  Forum  Romanum  as 
distinguished  from  the  later  or  imperial 
Fora — were  restored  and  altered  many 
times  before  the  final  collapse  of  the  imper- 
ial power  in  Rome :  the  temple  of  Castor, 
apparently  under  Tiberius  (14-37  a.  d.), 
the  temple  of  Saturn,  with  the  State  treas- 
ury in  its  basement,  perhaps  not  later  than 
the  time  of  Augustus  (30  b.  c.  to  14  a.  d.), 
the  temple  of  Vespasian,  much  rebuilt, 
under  Severus  and  Caracalla,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century,  a.  d.  The  build- 
ings named  as  being  in  Rome  itself,  to- 
gether with  the  Temple  of  Antoninus  Pius, 
that  of  Mars  the  Avenger  in  the  Forum  of 
[48] 


RESTORED  MODEL  OF  PANTHEON,  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART, 

NEW  YORK. 


THE   lANTHEON.   ROME,   AS   NOW   EXISTING. 


PLATB    IX 


Modem  Feeling  for  Roman  Buildings 

Augustus,  the  enclosing  wall  of  the  Forum 
of  Nerva,  and  other  fragments  now  wholly 
destroyed,  were  the  pieces  of  architectural 
art  which  most  especially  influenced  the 
studies  of  the  men  of  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  Plate  X  gives  what  now 
remains  of  the  Temple  of  Castor,  and  also 
what  remains  of  the  Temple  of  Mars  ;  but 
as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century  there  was 
much  more  to  be  seen  and  studied  about 
these  ruins.  The  building  behind  the 
Temple  of  Castor  in  the  Forum,  now  en- 
tirely stripped  of  its  architectural  decora- 
tions, retained  its  interior  order  of  marble 
columns  until  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
this  building  also  was  of  great  importance 
to  the  earlier  restorers  of  antique  art :  it  is 
thought  by  modern  archaeologists  to  have 
been  the  Temple  of  Augustus,  which  is 
known  to  have  existed  in  this  neighbor- 
hood. 

The  buildings  named  above  were  gener- 
ally columnar  in  character.     The  memorial 
arch  and  the  Pantheon  are  the  only  two  of 
them  which  were  certainly  vaulted  struc- 
[49] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

tures.  Now,  the  memorial  arch  required 
only  one  or  three  simple  barrel  vaults,  and 
the  example  of  the  Etruscans  must  have 
made  such  work  as  that  familiar  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Rome,  but  the  Pantheon  is  a  very 
different  thing.  This,  as  rebuilt  under 
Hadrian,  with  the  rotunda  which  we  know, 
must  have  been  one  of  the  earliest  Roman 
buildings  in  solid  mortar-masonry.  Its 
walls  are  very  thick,  faced  on  both  sides 
with  brick,  but  built  actually  of  small  stones 
laid  in  strong  mortar,  and  it  is  roofed  with 
extremely  massive  vaulting  of  the  same  ma- 
terials. Other  such  buildings  of  which  large 
parts  exist  are,  in  the  city  of  Rome  itself, 
the  great  Halls  of  the  Thermae  of  Caracalla 
(probably  built  about  205-10  a.  d.)  ;  those 
of  the  Thermae  of  Diocletian,  built  a  century 
later,  and  that  of  the  basilica  of  Maxentius 
and  Constantine  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Forum  Romanum,  built  between  312  and 
about  330  a.  d.  In  these  buildings  a  vault- 
ing as  massive  as  that  of  the  Pantheon  but 
of  wholly  different  shape  was  used.  The 
Pantheon,  a  circular  building,  is  roofed  by 
[50] 


Roman  Work  in  Mortar  Masonry 

a  circular  cupola  ^  which  is  kept  in  place  by 
a  ponderous  superstructure  carried  up  from 
the  haunches  of  the  vault,  so  that  the  thrust 
of  the  cupola  could  not,  however  great  it 
might  be,  affect  the  stability  of  the  structure. 
In  the  great  halls  of  the  Thermae  and  the 
basilica  above  named,  the  conditions  are 
very  different,  for  the  groined- vaulting  ^  of 
these  halls  would,  if  built  under  ordinary 
conditions,  exert  a  formidable  pressure  out- 
ward upon  all  its  points  of  support.  In 
these  Roman  examples,  however,  there  were 
two  influences  at  work  to  save  the  buildings 
from  possible  injury  :  the  skillful  disposition 
of  walls  and  piers  to  take  up  or  absorb  the 
thrust  from  each  point  of  support,  and  the 
fact  that  these  vaults  were  built  in  such  a 
fashion,  with  horizontal  beds  of  stone  laid 
in  strong  cement  mortar,  that  there  could 
not  be  much  thrust  when  once  the  mortar 
was  dry  and  the  vault  consolidated.     The 


•  Cupola :  A  cup-shaped  roof,  either  built  of  solid  masoniy 
and  so  really  a  vault,  or  a  mere  decorative  shell. 

'  Groin-vaulting :  Vaulting  in  which  one  barrel  vault  meets 
and  intersects  another,  so  that  the  projecting  solid  angles,  called 
groins,  are  formed  by  the  meeting  of  the  hollow  rounded  sur- 
faces. 

[51] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

vault  could  not  thrust  outward  without 
breaking :  and  it  was  too  homogeneous  to 
break.  Buildings  whose  actual  construction 
was  carried  out  in  this  fashion  exist  through- 
out those  Mediterranean  lands  which  once 
were  included  in  the  great  empire.  This 
system  of  building  gave  the  world  those 
great  permanent  interiors  which  were  the 
first  in  the  world's  history  to  be  of  architec- 
tural importance.  Egyptians,  Babylonians, 
Assyrians,  Greeks,  both  those  of  Greece  and 
those  of  the  Colonies — none  of  these  great 
building  nations  had  ever  conceived  of  in- 
teriors prepared  and  designed  for  their  own 
sake,  and  as  the  chief  part  of  the  building. 
The  Assyrian  kings  in  their  palaces  came 
nearer  to  understanding  the  possible  effec- 
tiveness of  the  interior  :  but  even  they  were 
satisfied  with  long  and  narrow  halls  shaped 
like  what  we  call  corridors.  It  was  left  for 
the  Romans  at  once  to  develop  their  system 
of  vaulting  and  at  the  same  time  to  im- 
prove the  construction  of  their  roofs  of  wood 
and  metal,  so  that  halls  fifty  feet,  sixty  feet, 
even  eighty  feet  wide,  could  be  built  with 
[52] 


Interior  Effect  is  Roman 

roofs  of  effective  and  beautiful  form  high 
above  the  floor.  Under  these  conditions  the 
most  splendid  possible  interior  effects  were 
producible.  Such  vast  columned  interiors 
as  that  of  the  Ulpian  basilica  and  that  of 
the  Septa  Julia  must  have  given  an  effect 
of  stately  grace  absolutely  unknown  to  the 
modern  world  ;  the  true  evolution  of  Greek 
art  in  one  direction  was  assuredly  to  be 
found  there.  On  the  other  hand  the  im- 
perial dwellings  on  the  Palatine  Hill  in 
Rome  with  their  numerous  vaulted  halls, 
the  temples  of  pure  Roman  design, 
like  that  of  Venus  and  that  of  the 
City  of  Rome,  built  back  to  back,  near  the 
Colosseum,  and  the  great  halls  of  the 
basilicas  and  baths,  as  above  suggested, 
were  capable  of  being  adorned  in  a  per- 
manent and  strictly  architectural  way  as 
none  of  the  buildings  of  earlier  races  had 
been.  The  basilica  of  Maxentius  had  its 
middle   division,  its   nave,^   about  eighty- 


'  Nave  :  In  a  bnilding  with  three  or  more  parallel  sub- 
divisions, forming  together  one  great  hall,  like  a  lai'ge  Gothic 
church,  that  part  which  rises  highest,  and  has  generally 
windows  above  the  roofs  of  the  lower  aisles. 

[53] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

three  feet  wide  and  roofed  with  a  groined 
vault,  although  the  span  of  that  vault  is 
less  than  this,  about  seventy-eight  feet,  be- 
cause carried  by  immense  columns  which 
stand  free  of  the  wall  on  either  side.  This 
great  hall  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
feet  high  to  the  top  of  the  vault :  and  it  was 
flanked  on  either  side  by  an  aisle  ^  made  up 
of  three  rooms,  each  about  fifty-three  feet 
square,  opening  into  the  central  hall ;  and 
the  barrel-vaults^  even  of  these  six  minor 
divisions  rose  eighty  feet  from  the  pave- 
ment. (See  Plate  XI.)  This  building  dates 
from  the  declining  days  of  the  Empire  and 
of  classical  civilization,  when  sculpture  had 
already  become  a  feeble  and  barbarous 
thing,  without  character,  and  when  what 
we  consider  the  Byzantine  feeling  in 
matters  of  decoration  had  already  obtained 
the  mastery  throughout  the  greater  part  of 
the  Roman  world.  The  strong  hold  which  the 
system  of  building  had  upon  the  engineers 
of  the  empire  can  be  judged  from  this  fact. 

•  Aisle  :    See  the  definition  of  nave. 

•  Barrel-vatilt :    A  vault  whose  cross-flection  is  everywhere 
the  same  as  if  part  of  a  tnbe. 

[54] 


o 

H 

> 

55 

09 

< 
< 


Modem  Tradition  is  Roman 

That  which  we  are  undertaking  here  is 
not  a  history  of  architecture,  but  in  a  sense 
a  history  of  the  modern  way  of  judging  of 
architecture.  What  then  is  the  origin  of 
those  traditions  and  accepted  doctrines 
upon  which  are  based  all  our  ways  of 
criticising  a  building?  This  and  the 
previous  chapter  are  a  partial  answer  to 
that  question.  The  contribution  of  the 
Roman  Imperial  world  to  this  tradition  has 
been,  by  much,  the  greatest  of  all.  It  is 
upon  the  Roman  practice  that  all  sub- 
sequent European  systems  of  decorative 
building  have  been  founded,  except  the 
lightest  and  slightest — the  wooden-framed 
houses  of  mediaeval  Europe  and  those  of 
modern  America,  and  their  like.  Apart 
from  fortification,  and  from  structures  built 
by  engineers  without  artistic  intention,  there 
is  not  a  single  form  of  building  in  masonry 
since  the  fifth  century  which  has  not  been 
developed  from  the  practice  of  the  Imperial 
builders.  Now  it  appears  that  those  build- 
ers not  only  built  in  two  different  ways,  but 
that  they  undertook  the  curious  twofold 
[55] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

task  of  constructing  their  buildings  with 
massive  walls  and  vaults  of  mortar- 
masonry  (thereby  abandoning  wholly  the 
example  of  the  Greeks  who  never  used 
mortar  at  all  in  the  buildings  we  admire, 
and  who  had  no  arches  nor  windows  nor 
interior  designing  of  any  sort  in  our 
modern  sense),  and  of  decorating  these 
buildings  within  and  without,  by  means  of 
a  borrowed  Greek  system  of  the  Orders, 
which  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  actual  structure.  They  allowed  them- 
selves to  take  certain  liberties  with  the 
Greek  Orders.  They  raised  the  column  on 
a  pedestal,  they  made  the  shaft  of  costly 
and  beautiful  material,  of  porphyry  or 
granite  or  pavonazzetto  marble  or  cipol- 
lino ;  and  consequently,  because  the  ma- 
terial was  precious  and  also  hard,  they  did 
not  try  to  adorn  the  shaft  with  channels  or 
flutes.  They  made  the  capital  of  bronze, 
cast  hollow  and  gilded  richly,  and  put  such 
capitals  around  the  top  of  the  shaft  as  a 
mere  ornamental  jacket,  concealing  the 
actual  supporting  member.  They  built  the 
[56] 


Architectural  Sculpture  is  Roman 

horizontal  architrave  of  wedge-shaped 
stones,  making  of  each  span  between  two 
columns  a  flat  arch  instead  of  a  simple  lintel 
of  one  block,  and  they  protected  this  built- 
up  lintel  by  a  second  arch  above,  a  dis- 
charging arch  to  throw  the  weight  upon 
the  columns  and  relieve  the  centre  of  the 
lintel.  Finally,  they  increased  the  amount 
of  carved  ornament  upon  all  parts  which 
seemed  capable  of  receiving  it.  This  they 
did,  not  only  by  making  the  sculpture  of 
any  one  moulding  very  elaborate  and  rich, 
but  also  by  increasing  the  number  of  sculp- 
tured mouldings.  Thus  in  Plate  XII, 
there  is  given,  that  it  may  be  compared 
with  the  carved  work  of  Athens  (see  Plate 
VII)  a  part  of  the  entablature  of  the  Temple 
of  Vespasian  in  the  Roman  Forum.  And 
the  differences  between  Greek  and  Roman 
practice  in  this  respect  are  not  limited  to 
the  amount  of  sculpture  in  a  given  mould- 
ing or  a  given  monument :  they  affect  also 
the  very  nature  of  the  ornament  itself 
Plate  XII  gives  one  side  of  the  imperial  arch 
at  Benevento ;  a  monument  intended  pri- 
[57] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

marily  as  a  pedestal  for  a  great  group  of 
bronze  figures;  the  reliefs  on  the  arch 
showing  Trajan  in  war  and  in  peace,  sacri- 
ficing, conquering  Dacians  and  Armenians. 
It  is  evident  that  no  such  use  of  human  sub- 
ject in  sculpture  had  ever  suggested  itself  to 
the  Greek  builders  of  the  temples.  It  is 
historical :  and  it  is  also  strictly  decorative, 
and  subordinate  to  the  architectural  design. 
For  any  similar  conception  arising  among 
Greek  peoples  we  moderns  must  go  to  build- 
ings which  were  utterly  unknown  to  the 
European  artists  who  built  up  the  neo- 
classic  system,  the  men  of  the  fifteenth  and 
subsequent  centuries.  Such  a  building  as 
the  famous  tomb  of  Mausolus  at  Halicar- 
nassos,  now  Budroun,  on  the  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  may  indeed  have  influenced  greatly 
the  Roman  architects  of  the  time  of 
Hadrian.  That  Emperor,  who  was  a  great 
traveller,  may  have  seen  the  Mausoleum ; 
his  favorite  architect  may  have  been  a  stu- 
dent of  it  from  childhood ;  but  any  ideas 
which  the  men  who  brought  classic  art  back 
to  modern  Europe  drew  from  that  famous 
[58] 


Porticoes  and  City  Colonnades 

structure  came  to  them  through  the  Roman 
designers. 

However  much  they  might  abandon  the 
Greek  use,  that  is  to  say,  the  rational  and 
inevitable  use  of  the  Orders,  the  Roman 
architects  still  employed  those  Orders  con- 
stantly, and  in  a  way  more  splendid  than 
anything  the  Greeks  had  attempted.  The 
Eastern  notion  of  adorning  a  town  by  a 
broad  central  avenue  lined  with  colonnades 
two  or  three  deep,  an  idea  developing  itself 
rapidly  in  the  cities  of  Syria,  obtained 
throughout  the  empire  during  its  peaceful 
days.  It  appears  that  in  the  fourth  century 
it  was  feasible  to  go  afoot  from  almost  any 
point  in  the  central  regions  of  Rome,  north, 
south,  east  or  west,  for  a  mile  or  two,  while 
keeping  always  under  cover  ;  except  indeed 
as  one  crossed  a  street  or  avenue,  though 
even  at  such  crossings  there  was  often  the 
Tetrapylon,  the  four-fronted  gateway,  to 
carry  the  shelter  on  from  portico  to  portico. 
This  system  of  colonnaded  porticoes,  roofed 
always  and  enclosed  very  often  with  a  solid 
wall  on  one  side  at  least,  was  developed  in 
[59] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

many  forms.  A  temple  would  stand  in  a 
great  court  surrounded  by  just  such  colon- 
nades. A  forum  of  a  Roman  town  like  an 
agora  of  a  Greek  town  would  be  faced  by 
colonnades  on  every  side.  For  the  purpose 
of  display,  great  squares  were  opened  up  es- 
sentially for  the  purpose  of  surrounding 
them  by  just  such  porticoes.  Plate  XIII 
gives  views  of  the  ruins  at  Jerash  in  Syria, 
east  of  the  Jordan,  the  remains  of  the  city  of 
Gerasa,  whose  glory  seems  to  have  been  of 
the  time  of  the  Antonine  emperors.  The 
lower  figure  gives  the  great  triple  archway 
south  of  the  ancient  walls  of  Gerasa :  the 
upper  figure  a  view  of  the  great  oval  or 
semi-oval  space,  whose  shape  is  not  deter- 
mined, and  which  we  may  hardly  call 
either  di.  forum  or  an  agora.  Plate  XIV  gives 
a  detail  of  the  Forum  Transitorium  of  Nerva, 
Emperor  from  a.  d.  96  to  98.  The  whole  en- 
closure was  a  massive  wall  about  ninety 
feet  high  and  built  of  huge  blocks  of  lime- 
stone, the  decorative  treatment  and  the 
sculptures  being  on  the  inside  and  facing 

upon  the  Temple  of  Minerva.     The  figure 
[60] 


JEBASH.  SYRIA ;  THE  ANCIENT  GERASA,  GENERAL  VIEW. 


PLATE  XIII. 


ANCIENT   CITY   GATE    OF    GERASA. 


PART  OF  Tin:  BCJINDINC;  WALL  OF  THE  FORUxM  OF  NF.UVA  (FOHUM  TKANSi- 
TORIUM)  ROME:  THE  MODERN  LEVEL  AT  LEAST  TWENTY  FEET  ABOVE 
ANCIENT    PAVEMENT. 

PLATE     XIV. 


Plan  of  that  part  of  Rome  which  contains  the  Imperial  Fora. 
are  those  covered  by  modem  biiildings. 

ei 


Shaded  parts 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

gives  a  trustworthy  plan  of  the  buildings 
called  by  the  name  of  Trajan  and  built 
during  his  reign  and  that  of  his  suc- 
cessor, Hadrian.  The  modern  buildings 
and  streets  are  shown,  and  it  is  seen  from 
these  how  the  actual  plan  can  only  be  in- 
ferred by  that  which  has  been  discovered 
by  digging  here  and  there,  or  by  investiga- 
tions in  cellars  of  modern  structures.  Still 
the  general  type  of  the  old  design  can  be 
seized :  a  great  open  square,  270  by  370 
feet  and  this  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
a  covered  portico  fifty  feet  wide  with  two 
rows  of  great  columns  in  addition  to  the 
wall  outside,  which  itself  was  pierced  by 
many  openings  filled  with  columns  in  antis} 
Across  one  end  of  this  great  square,  stretched 
the  Ulpian  basilica,  as  long  as  the  whole 
square  was  wide,  including  its  portico,  and 
half  as  wide  as  that :  in  other  words,  the 
open  interior  of  the  basilica  was  about  180 
by  nearly  400  feet  and  the  roof  of  all  this 

'  In  antis  :  Latin,  between  the  ant«e.  The  anta  is  the  end  of 
a  Tvall  treated  so  as  to  be  an  almost  independent  member,  like 
a  square  pillar  in  which  the  wall  ends.  The  portico  made  by 
two  of  these  set  opposite  one  another  and  with  columns  between, 
is  said  to  have  two  columns  or  four  oolnmns  in  antis. 

[62] 


The  Fora  of  the  Emperors  in  Rome 

was  carried  by  two  rows  of  columns  on 
every  side  in  addition  to  the  outer  wall 
which  again  was  in  parts  opened  up  into  a 
colonnade.  The  basilica  may  or  may  not 
have  been  covered  in  the  central  part : 
various  conjectural  restorations  have  been 
made,  but  nothing  is  absolutely  certain. 
It  is  evident  that  it  was  very  open  to  per- 
sons coming  and  going — that  they  were  al- 
lowed to  cross  it  almost  as  freely  as  one 
crosses  through  a  great  cathedral  in  France 
or  in  Italy,  going  in  at  the  north  door  and 
out  at  the  south  door,  almost  at  pleasure. 
Beyond  it,  was  a  court  where  stood  the 
Column  of  Trajan,  still  erect,  though  with- 
out its  accompanying  minor  buildings,  and 
beyond  that  again  and  across  what  may 
have  been  an  entirely  open  street  was  the 
temple  erected  to  the  deified  Trajan,  after 
his  death,  by  the  Senate,  which  temple  was 
surrounded  by  another  portico  and  covered 
nearly  as  much  ground  as  the  great  forum 
itself.  In  this  way  a  continuous  space  of 
nearly  a  thousand  feet  in  length  by  a  width 
of  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred  feet 
[63] 


Later  Greek  and  Roman  Design 

was  either  covered  by  the  roofs  of  porticoes 
or  open  to  the  sky  within  belts  of  these 
same  porticoes.  To  walk  once  around  the 
whole,  following  the  outside  ambulatory  of 
the  porticoes  would  be  to  walk  the  best 
half  of  a  mile,  and  this  one  could  do  with- 
out ever  passing  out  under  the  open  sky, 
except  perhaps  in  crossing  to  the  temple 
enclosure.  Nor  does  this  account  of  the 
whole  composition  include  in  the  least  the 
great  semicircular  buildings  projecting 
from  the  forum  and  from  the  basilica  on 
the  northeast  and  southwest.  Now  as  all 
of  this  vast  congeries  of  splendid  buildings 
must  be  assumed  to  have  been  entirely  of 
trabeated^  structure,  a  mere  series  of  col- 
umns and  horizontal  lintels  resting  upon 
them  with  superstructure,  it  is  evident  that 


'  Trabeiit«d :  Built  with  beams  or  lintels  (said  of  a  building, 
or  part  of  a  building)  or  characterized  by  the  use  of  beams  and 
lintels  to  the  exclusion  of  arches  (said  of  a  building  or  a  style). 
Thus  the  Pantheon  at  Rome  though  entirely  vaulted  in  its  main 
structure  has  a  trabeated  portico,  and  the  screens  in  front  of  the 
great  niches  within  (see  PI.  IX)  are  of  trabeated  construction  as 
Mir  as  they  go — that  is  they  consist  of  an  entablature  supported 
on  columns.  The  term  ''arcuated"  is  used  in  direct  contra- 
distinction from  trabeated  and  denotes  that  which  is  constructed 
on  the  principle  of  the  arch  or  that  which  is  characterized  by 
the  use. 


[64] 


Roman  Magnificence  With  Greek  Taste 

the  Greek  spirit  and  the  Greek  taste  con- 
trolled all  parts  of  this  vast  composition. 

Mile  upon  mile  of  colonnades,  as  Greek 
in  taste  as  the  later  age  would  allow,  en- 
closed and  led  up  to  superb  interiors  of  a 
dignity  and  magnificence  immeasurably  be- 
yond anything  conceived  by  the  Greeks. 
This  is  the  Roman  signet,  as  it  were,  the 
stamp  which  the  great  Empire  put  upon 
the  world. 


L65] 


CHAPTER  III 

EARLY    MEDIEVAL   DESIGN 

The  unequalled  grandeur  of  the  Empire 
as  it  endured  from  50  b.  c.  to  about  350 
A.  D.  is  most  strongly  felt  when  we  think  of 
the  Pax  Romana — that  Roman  peace  which 
forbade  armed  conflicts  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean lands  in  which  war  had  been  the  rule. 
To  this  Peace  an  altar  was  erected  in  Rome 
by  the  orders  of  Augustus.  From  the  Cas- 
pian Sea  to  the  Atlantic,  and  from  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic  to  the  Atlas  Mountains 
a  consecutive  and  orderly  government  was 
maintained,  fully  as  beneficent  as  has  ever 
prevailed  in  any  single  nation  of  the  earth, 
except  in  very  recent  years  in  Western 
Europe,  and  immeasurably  superior  to  what 
has  existed  in  those  same  regions,  taken 
together  during  the  past  dozen  centuries. 
One  curiously  complete  difference  existed, 
however,  between  the  west  and  east  halves 
[66] 


Roman  Influence,  East  and  West 

of  the  Empire.  In  the  West,  Roman  domi- 
nation brought  with  it  a  civilization  so  supe- 
rior to  that  known  in  those  lands  before  the 
conquest  that  Gaul  and  Iberian  must  have 
looked  upon  the  Italian  domination  as 
synonymous  with  all  that  makes  for  en- 
lightenment and  intellectual  advance  as 
well  as  good  order.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  peoples  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  Asia 
Minor,  and  Syria,  must  have  felt  that  in 
yielding  to  the  Italian  power  they  were 
yielding  to  a  force,  which,  however  bene- 
ficial politically,  represented  a  lower  intel- 
lectual civilization  than  their  own.  The 
business  of  the  Empire  was,  as  we  now  see 
it,  to  develop  and  hand  on  to  the  future, 
Hellenic  civilization.  The  first  dawn  of 
this  extended  Hellenism  must  have  been  to 
the  West  a  clear  intellectual  gain :  but  in 
the  East  it  was  not  noticeable.  The  holders 
of  Greek  traditions  may  have  enjoyed  the 
apparent  willingness  of  the  conquerors  to 
defer  to  the  mental  and  moral  superiority 
of  the  conquered  :  but  they  could  not  have 
bowed  to  Rome  as  the  one  civilizer  known, 
[67] 


Early  Mediseval  Design 

as  did  the  people  of  the  west  of  Europe. 
And  so  it  was  that  the  people  of  the  East 
took  one  view  of  the  architectural  problem 
when  the  Imperial  system  had  fallen,  while 
the  Gallo-Romans,  Britons  and  Spaniards 
took  quite  another  view,  which  they  im- 
pressed at  once  upon  their  Frankish,  Visi- 
gothic  and  Saxon  conquerors.  The  Roman 
builders  left  two  great  traditions,  (1)  the 
adornment  of  the  building,  the  open  square, 
the  city  with  combinations  of  Greek-seeming 
colonnades,  (see  p.  58);  and  (2)  the  interior, 
arranged  for  interior  effect,  vaulted  when 
practicable,  flat  roofed  with  massive  tra- 
beated  construction  when  the  light  and  open 
character  of  the  building,  as  of  a  portico, 
invited  a  Greek  manner  of  design,(see  p.  53). 
The  first-named  of  these  traditions  was  des- 
tined not  to  be  very  boldly  or  very  generally 
followed  imtil  after  the  Middle  Ages.  (See 
Chapters  VI,  VII,  VIII.)  The  other  pre- 
vailed at  once:  the  needs  of  the  Christian 
church  were  served  by  it;  and  the  West- 
erners followed  it  in  one  way,  the  Easterners 
in  a  very  different  way.      The  people  of 

[68] 


Romanesque  Art,  East  and  West 

Italy,  Gaul,  Spain,  Germany  and  Britain 
developed  Romanesque^  architecture,  the 
people  of  the  Eastern  Empire — which  held 
together  for  centuries  the  Greeks,  Alba- 
nians, Macedonians,  Syrians,  Phrygians — 
created  Byzantine^  architecture.  The  Ro- 
manesque is  not  ill-named :  it  is  indeed 
quasi-Roman,  Roman  as  near  as  the  poor 
and  scattered  communities  could  make  it. 
The  Byzantine  is  a  mixture  of  Persian  and 
Roman  habits  and  rules,  and  is  the  very 
finest  thing  that  ever  came  out  of  such  an 
almost  conscious  mixing  of  diverse  ele- 
ments. It  could  not  have  been  created  but 
for  the  Roman  Peace,  which  still  held  sway 
over  the  Eastern  seas  and  lands  after  Italy 


'  Romanesque :  Literally,  semi-Roman,  or  won  Id-be  Roman  ; 
applied  to  any  or  all  styles  of  art,  especially  architecture,  which 
were  developed  directly  from  the  Roman  imperial  art  of  the 
years  before  450.  In  ordinary  usage,  the  basilica  style  of  Italy 
and  even  the  similar  art  in  the  northwest  of  Europe  are  called 
Latin,  and  the  style  built  up  in  eastern  Europe  with  Constanti- 
nople for  its  centre,  is  called  Byzantine  ;  but  Romanesque  may 
be  considered  a  term  covering  all  these,  and  as  including,  too, 
all  European  art  until  the  complete  establishment  of  the  Gothic 
»rt  in  the  northwest,  and  in  the  East  until  the  establishment  of 
Saracenic  or  Mohammedan  art  about  the  ninth  century,  A.  D. 

*  Byzantine :  The  art  of  the  Eastern  Empire  centred  in  By- 
zantium or  Constantinople.  Modem  developments  of  this  art, 
without  radical  changes,  exist  in  Moldavia  and  the  Caucasian 
regions,  and  its  influence  is  seen  in  the  native  arobitectore  of 
Boasia. 


[69] 


Early  Mediaeval  Design 

and  the  West  had  gone  back  to  pristine 
barbarism  :  but  under  that  domination  it 
spread  all  over  the  Balkan  Peninsula  with 
Greece,  over  southern  and  western  Italy  and 
Sicily,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  the  coast  regions 
of  Asia  Minor. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  both  of  these 
great  styles  were  superseded  in  their  turn 
by  other  and  very  vigorous  styles :  by  the 
Gothic  in  Europe  and  the  Saracen  or  Mo- 
hammedan in  Asia  :  and  therefore  it  is  that 
we  have  only  churches,  and  not  many  of 
them,  from  which  to  judge  Romanesque 
and  Byzantine  architecture.  At  least,  how- 
ever, these  are  erect  and  complete,  not  too 
much  altered,  roofed  and  floored  as  of 
old,  with  window-openings  and  doorways, 
porches  and  apses  in  working  order.  It  is 
with  the  present  chapter,  then,  that  we  be- 
gin to  study  buildings  which  we  can  see 
complete.  And,  after  all,  the  church  was 
much  the  most  important  structure  of  the 
time.  Here  and  there  a  ruined  palace,  like 
Barbarossa's  at  Gelnhausen  and  the  Heb- 
domon  at  Constantinople,  makes  us  regret 
[70] 


Romanesque  Art  Seen  in  the  Churches 

what  we  have  lost :  but  these  also  prove 
the  truth  of  our  assumption  that  it  was  the 
Church  Building  in  which  was  determined 
the  growth  of  architecture.  Indeed  that 
was  to  be  the  march  of  events  until  the 
fifteenth  century :  only  then  did  the  resi- 
dence and  the  house  of  state  come  to  the 
front. 

The  earliest  western  churches  are  the 
Basilicas,  buildings  of  a  form  and  style 
derived  partly  from  the  Roman  civic  basil- 
ica,^ and  partly  from  the  well  known  peri- 
style or  garden-like  court  of  the  large 
Roman  house,  with  its  pillars  support- 
ing the  roofs  of  open  galleries  on  three  or 
four  sides.  The  buildings  of  this  character 
built  or  adapted  for  Christian  uses  were 
themselves  basilicas — Christian  basilicas  or 
post-classic  basilicas.    They  were  flat  roofed, 


*  Basilica:  Originally,  under  the  Roman  imperial  system,  a 
building  for  varied  business,  public  and  private,  having  often  a 
courtroom  connected  with  the  open  hall  :  hence,  under  the  ear- 
lier Christian  control,  a  church  built  like  most  of  the  earlier 
basilicas,  that  is  to  say,  vpith  a  nave  and  two  or  more  aisles. 
A  special  feature  of  the  Christian  basilicas  was  the  transept,  a 
high  and  open  hall  built  across  the  upper  end  of  the  nave  and 
aisles  :  and  beyond  this  (that  is,  farther  from  the  entrance 
doorways)  was  often  the  apse,  a  generally  semiciitjular  prt)- 
jection. 


[71] 


E^rly  Mediaeval  Design 

without  vaulting,  imitating  in  this  the 
majority  of  the  older,  classical  basilicas. 
A  good  example  of  these  buildings  is  seen 
in  the  still  existing  church  in  Rome,  the 
Liberian  basilica  called  commonly  St.  Mary 
the  Greater  (S.  Maria  Maggiore).  Plate  XV 
gives  the  interior  of  this  building  as  drawn 
by  Gutensohn  for  the  great  work  of  Bun- 
sen  :  the  late  alteration  which  spoils  the 
uniformity  of  the  colonnade  on  either  side 
being  ignored.  The  columns  of  this  colon- 
nade are  entirely  antique,  excepting  repairs 
and  slight  alterations.  It  is  probable  that 
in  this  as  well  as  in  many  similar  structures 
the  ancient  pillars  of  a  great  outdoor  por- 
tico, such  as  are  described  in  Chapter  II, 
were  taken  bodily  for  the  interior  of  the 
church.  The  clergy  of  the  fifth  century 
cared  much  less  for  the  beauty  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  city  outside  than  for,  each, 
his  own  special  dominion — the  church  which 
he  controlled ;  and  there  was  no  munici- 
pality to  prevent  such  spoliation.  The 
plan  of  the  church  is  easy  to  understand 
from  the  plate  itself ;  apart  from  the  numer- 
[72] 


CHURCH    OF    SAN    MINIATO,    NEAR    FLORENCE.    TUSCANY. 
PLATE     XVL 


The  Style  of  the  Christian  Basilicas 

ous  outside  chapels  and  sacristies  of  later 
time,  a  simple  parallelogram  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  and  fifty  feet 
wide,  which  width  is  divided  into  a  broad 
nave  and  two  much  narrower  aisles.  And 
therefore  a  single  glance  reveals  the  whole 
structural  character  and  the  whole  archi- 
tectural design  of  the  church.  Three  par- 
allel halls  divided  by  two  rows  of  columns ; 
the  central  hall  (the  nave)  rising  much 
higher  than  the  roofs  on  either  side,  and 
showing,  therefore,  a  broad  space  of  wall 
towards  the  interior ;  and,  towards  the  ex- 
terior, a  wall  less  high  by  the  vertical 
height  of  the  aisle-roof.  This  great  wall 
surface  will  be  certain  to  have  windows  in 
it,  because  that  is  the  obvious  way  of  light- 
ing the  nave  :  then  the  roofs  either  finished 
within  by  a  flat  ceiling,  as  in  the  present 
instance,  or  showing  the  timbers  of  the 
roof,  with  only  such  decoration  as  color  and 
a  little  very  simple  carving  may  supply. 
This  type  of  building  endured  through  the 
whole  epoch  of  what  we  call  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  has  never  been  wholly  aban- 
[73] 


Early  Mediaeval  Design 

doned  since.     Our  larger  churches  are  close 
studies  of  it. 

Substitute  a  series  of  equal  arches  for  the 
straight  horizontal  lintels  which  stretch 
from  column  to  column  and  carry  the 
clearstory^  wall,  and  you  have  the  very 
root  of  the  Western  Romanesque,  and 
of  its  higher  development  in  the  Gothic 
style.  (See  Chapter  IV.)  Basilicas  contem- 
poraneous, or  nearly  so,  with  S.  Maria 
Maggiore  are  often  so  built,  with  round 
arches  carried  from  column  to  column ; 
and  if  we  take  a  church  of  a  much  later 
period  of  central  Italy  we  find  often  the 
basilica  type  in  its  simplicity — developed 
and  made  more  complex  only  in  detail. 
Plate  XVI  gives  the  interior  of  the  church  of 
San  Miniato  al  Monte  outside  the  walls  of 
Florence.  The  noticeable  peculiarity  in 
this  is  the  change  of  the  arcade,  supporting 
the  clearstory  wall,  from  a  single  uniform 
line  of  equal  columns  supporting  equal 
arches,  to   a   more   organized  structure  of 


'  Clearstory  :    That  part  of  the  nave  which  rises  above  the 
aisle  roofs,  and  has  windows  to  light  the  interior. 


[74] 


The  Development  of  the  Basilica  Type 

two  great  piers  with  two  responds  ^  and  in 
each  of  the  three  spaces  so  left,  two  columns 
with  three  round  arches.  This  system  is 
found  in  churches  as  early  as  Santa  Agnese 
outside  the  walls  of  Rome,  and  was  never 
abandoned.  To  satisfy  in  some  way  the 
instinctive  desire  of  the  builders  for  a  more 
complex  plan  than  the  perfectly  unbroken 
nave  and  aisles,  there  was  introduced  the 
wall  supported  on  a  great  round  arch, 
which,  as  seen  in  Plate  XVI,  spans  the  nave 
at  two  points  in  its  length  and  may  be 
thought  to  stiffen  the  otherwise  long  and 
unbuttressed  clearstory  wall.  The  painted 
decoration  of  the  timbers  of  this  roof  of  San 
Miniato  is  very  attractive,  the  color  effect 
is  more  elaborate  than  the  photograph  can 
show :  it  is  really  a  very  beautiful  thing : 
and  it  is  rare  in  Europe  to  find  an  open 
timber  roof  treated  so  frankly  as  a  thing 
susceptible  of  adornment.  In  other  ways 
it  is  curious  to  see  the  way  in  which  the 
poverty   and   lack   of   skill   of    the   tenth 

'  Respond  :  The  pilaster,  or  engaged  column,  or  pier  of  any 
shape,  which  forms  the  end  of  an  arcade  or  colonnade  marking 
the  place  of  meeting  with  the  enclosing  wall. 

[75] 


Early  Mediaeval  Design 

century  men  alter  the  style  of  design  from 
the  huge  Roman  way  of  doing  things. 
Lightness  has  to  be  substituted  for  ponder- 
ous masses  ;  the  walls  are  as  thin  as  would 
stand  alone  and  fairly  steady  :  only  the 
columns,  taken  from  antique  structures, 
can  be  thought  capable  of  bearing  more 
weight  than  is  laid  upon  them  ;  the  decora- 
tion is  by  means  of  a  marble  inlay  of  large 
and  bold  design  on  the  walls  and  of  minute 
pattern  in  the  pulpit,  the  altar  rail  and  the 
like,  and,  in  the  half  dome  over  the  apse,^ 
a  mosaic  picture  of  sacred  significance — 
Christ  with  the  emblems  of  the  four 
evangelists  and  with  the  Virgin  and  San 
Miniato  the  patron  of  the  church.  In 
these  mosaics  and  inlays  there  is  to  be 
noted  a  great  interest  in  abstract  patterns ; 
a  characteristic  of  Asiatic  art,  but  un- 
frequent  in  Greek  or  in  Roman  art  as  we 
know  it.  Basilicas  of  the  fifth  century  and 
of  the  sixth  century  at  Ravenna  (S.  Apol- 

'  Apee  :  A  projecting  member  of  a  bnilding,  nsaally  forming 
an  enlargement  or  addition  to  a  large  ball,  as  a  Koman 
basilica,  or  especially,  a  Church.  Tlie  plan  is  osiially  a  semi- 
oirole,  or  a  semicircle  with  an  added  parallelogram  to  lengthen 
it,  or  a  polygon  approaching  a  half  oiroie. 

[76] 


Modifications  of  the  Basilica  Type 

linare  in  Classe  and  S.  Apollinare  Nuovo), 
of  those  and  later  centuries  in  Rome,  of  the 
eighth  century  at  Parenzo  in  Istria,  of  the 
tenth  century  at  Lucca  (San  Frediano)  of  the 
twelfth  century  in  Palermo  and  Monreale  in 
Sicily,  and  others,  still  exist  with  their  main 
characteristics  unchanged.  They  retain  the 
simpler  plan  of  rows  of  columns  of  uniform 
size  and  placed  uniformly.  Another  whole 
family  of  churches  are  of  the  San  Miniato 
type :  the  length  of  the  nave  divided  into 
three  or  four  greater  bays,^  subdivided  into 
minor  bays.  Such  are  the  famous  churches 
of  San  Zeno  at  Verona,  and  of  San  Michele 
at  Pavia  and  Sant'  Ambrogio  in  Milan 
(see  Plate  XVII)  :  but  these  two  last  named 
churches  have  vaulted  roofs  of  stone. 
Plate  XVIII  gives  the  exterior  of  Gross 
St.  Martin  at  Cologne  and  the  interior  of 
the  cathedral  of  Tournai  in  Belgium, 
interesting  in  the  highest  degree  as  show- 
ing plainly  how  the  Northern  builders 
were    not    content   with    the   simple   pro- 


'  Bay :    One  division  of  a  long  bnilding  whose  suuoessive 
parts  are  alike,  or  very  similar. 


[77] 


Early  Medieval  Design 

gramme  of  the  Italians — an  interior  upon 
which  all  pains  were  lavished  while  the 
exterior  was  left  to  come  as  it  might,  a 
mere  brick  box  with  the  round-headed 
windows  cut  plainly  through  the  wall. 
These  builders  of  French  Flanders  in  the 
eleventh  century  made  the  exterior  of  their 
church  effective  by  the  process  of  building 
four  square  towers  of  very  simple  design, 
involving  no  sort  of  complexity  in  their 
construction,  and  grouping  these  towers  at 
the  four  corners  of  a  larger  and  lower 
central  mass  also  of  tower-like  aspect, 
while  to  the  westward  stretched  the  long 
nave  pierced  with  a  series  of  precisely 
similar  round  arches,  above  and  below, 
with  long  roofs  of  uniform  section,  and  all 
this  brought  sharply  up  against  the  great 
rising  mass  of  the  towers  from  which  again 
three  semicircular  apses  went  off  to  the 
east,  the  north  and  the  south.  In  this  way 
an  external  architectural  effect  was  pro- 
duced far  more  elaborate  than  anything 
that  the  Italians  of  that  time  had  imagined. 
As  the  church  of  Tournai  now  stands,  a 
C78] 


Romanesque  Churches  in  the  North 

lace  Gothic  chancel  has  replaced  the  old 
eastern  apse  :  it  is  easy,  however,  to  restore 
mentally  the  original  exterior  of  the 
church,  and,  if  it  were  more  difficult, 
the  contemplation  of  other  Romanesque 
churches,  especially  in  Germany,  would 
provide  us  with  the  material  necessary. 
Plate  XIX  shows  from  the  east  end  the 
church  of  the  Holy  Apostles  at  Cologne, 
and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  three  apses  of 
somewhat  different  design  grouped  about 
the  central  and  dominating  mass  of  the 
Flemish  church.  This  church  at  Cologne 
has  two  nearly  round  towers  connecting 
the  apses  and  seems  to  have  had  four  such 
towers  originally,  or  in  the  first  design, 
with  one  square  tower  in  the  middle  of  the 
west  front.  The  church  of  St.  Martin  in 
the  same  place  (p.  77 ;  Plate  XVIII)  differs 
from  these  and  from  most  Romanesque 
churches  in  having  a  very  noble  central 
tower,  one  of  the  finest  productions  of  the 
Northern  Romanesque. 

It  is  evident  that  the  admiration  which 
we  give  to  even  the  most  important  of  these 
[79] 


Early  Mediseval  Design 

churches  is  a  different  thing  from  that 
which  the  great  monuments  of  antiquity 
compel.  The  construction  of  the  medi- 
seval churches  is  as  complex  as  that  of  the 
greatest  Roman  monuments ;  this  coming 
from  a  necessity  of  providing  interiors  rel- 
atively larger  than  those  of  the  Roman 
imperial  epoch.  The  builders  even  of  the 
twelfth  century,  and  even  in  the  most 
nearly  well  governed  countries  of  Europe, 
had  but  limited  resources.  No  king,  no 
great  noble  controlling  a  province,  no 
bishop,  no  convent,  however  rich,  could 
dispose  of  resources  for  one  instant  com- 
parable to  those  of  a  Roman  pro-consul  in 
even  a  small  town  of  the  empire.  The 
mediseval  men  had  to  get  as  much  building 
as  they  could  for  their  money.  If  they 
built  their  walls  thick,  as  they  seem  to  the 
modern  traveller,  this  was  because  they 
were  unable  to  get  good  masons.  A  stone 
wall  may  be  carried  up  forty  feet  high  with 
a  thickness  of  only  three  feet,  even  when 
pierced  with  windows,  if  you  have  good 
workmen  in  your  employ  and  fairly  good 
[80] 


CHURCH  OF  THE  HOLY  APOSTLES.  COLOGNE,  RHENISH   PRUSSIA. 
PLATE    XIX. 


CATHEDRAL    OF    SAINT    MARTIN,     MAINZ,     (MAYKNCE)     HESSE,     GERMANS. 
VLATE    XX. 


Small  Resources  and  Little  Skill 

flat-bedded  stone  with  tolerable  mortar; 
but  as  your  material  is  the  worse  and  as 
your  masons  are  the  more  unskilled,  you 
have  to  build  the  thicker.  Indeed  the  his- 
tory of  Romanesque  architecture  is  that  of 
a  long-continued  fight  between  the  problem 
and  the  would-be  solvers  thereof  It  was 
desirable  to  roof  with  masonry,  partly  as  a 
safeguard  when,  as  often  happened,  the 
wooden  structure  of  the  high  roof  above 
the  walls  caught  fire  and  was  destroyed, 
and  also  because  of  the  comparative  stateli- 
ness  of  effect,  and  because  each  bishop 
thought  of  building  not  for  his  own  brief 
time  only,  but  for  his  successors.  And  this 
very  requirement,  that  each  part  of  the 
building  should  be  closed  at  the  top  with 
masonry,  kept  the  builders  of  Western 
Europe  busy  from  the  time  of  Clovis  on. 
The  history  of  any  one  great  church  is  a 
record  of  continual  failure  of  walls,  foun- 
dations or  abutments ;  some  part  of  the 
vaulting  is  forever  crumbling  and  threat- 
ening to  fall  so  that  it  has  to  be  rebuilt ; 
and  now  and  then  there's  a  crash  and  a 
[81] 


Early  Mediseval  Design 

catastrophe.  The  buttresses^  have  to  be 
enlarged ;  iron  ties  have  to  be  inserted ; 
even  the  plan  of  the  vaulting  has  to  be 
changed  every  now  and  then  and  a  new 
experiment  tried  with  a  view  to  its  greater 
permanence  in  another  style  of  work. 
Hence  it  is  that  the  modern  student  of 
such  buildings  has  at  once  that  delight  in 
them  which  comes  from  their  very  archa- 
ism mingled  with  a  kind  of  deprecatory 
pity  :  we  sympathize  with  their  builders' 
aims  and  regret  their  feeble  resources  and 
their  small  knowledge  :  we  love  their  build- 
ings as  we  love  the  stammering  speech  of 
childhood.  There  is  something  else,  no 
doubt :  such  a  splendid  tower-group  as  that 
at  Tournai,  such  a  noble  interior  as  that  of 
Mayence  (Mainz)  cathedral  (see  Plate  XX), 
are  individually,  and  as  works  of  art,  power- 
ful enough  to  command  our  sincere  admira- 
tion :  but  these  are  the  exceptions. 


'  Bnttrees :  A  mass  of  material,  usually  masonry,  intended 
to  resist,  by  its  dead  weight,  the  thrust  of  an  arch,  or  vault,  or, 
more  rarely,  the  spread  of  a  framed  roof  or  the  like. 

Flying  buttress :  A  sloping  bar  of  stone,  supported  on 
an  arch^  structure  which  serves  to  carry  the  thrust  of  an  aroh 
or  vault  aoroes  a  space  to  the  buttress  beyond. 


[82] 


Buildings  of  Exceptional  Interest 

Exceptions  in  another  way  are  found  in 
northern  and  central  France.  The  build- 
ings there  are  not  so  remarkable  for  their 
superiority  in  general  design  as  they  are  for 
their  unparalleled  richness  in  sculptural 
adornment.  They  have  at  the  same  time 
many  larger  features  which  are  of  peculiar 
interest.  Thus  the  tower  of  St.  Radegonde 
at  Poitiers  (see  Plate  XXI),  square  below 
and  coming  to  an  octagon  for  the  belfry,  is 
a  wonderfully  spirited  composition :  and 
close  to  it  is  that  famous  church  of  Notre 
Dame  la  Grande,  of  which  a  large  detail  is 
shown  in  the  next  plate.  The  builders  of 
this  latter  church  were  lovers  of  sculpture 
and  knew  how  to  handle  it  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  great  result,  so  they  composed  boldly 
in  groups  of  statuary,  floral  sculpture,  or 
sculpture  as  rich  made  up  of  wholly  con- 
ventional forms.  Plate  XXII  gives  the  wall 
above  the  three  great  portals  of  the  west 
front  of  this  extraordinary  church ;  and 
while  inferior  in  tasteful  harmony  to  the 
cathedral  at  Angouleme  near  by,  or  indeed 
to  many  a  noble  church  of  the  centre  of 
[83] 


Early  Medieval  Design 

France,  the  richness  of  conception,  and  the 
easy  way  in  which  the  constructional  parts 
of  the  building  are  loaded  with  carved 
adornment  without  injury  to  its  massive- 
ness  and  its  dignity  are  surprising  enough. 
The  sculpture  is  barbaric  in  its  lack  of 
knowledge,  but  to  be  barbaric  is  not  to  be 
weak  or  insignificant.  The  nineteenth  cen- 
tury workmen  of  Europe  had  no  such 
power  of  effective  design.  In  this,  as  in 
building,  the  eleventh  century  men  were 
surpassed  by  those  of  the  years  to  follow : 
and  but  for  that  still  greater  Gothic  art 
(see  Chapter  IV)  we  should  have  to  go 
to  Romanesque  architecture  for  constant 
stimulus. 

The  architecture  of  the  Eastern  half  of 
the  Empire  was  much  less  nearly  Roman 
in  its  plan.  Basilicas  there  were  ;  but  at  a 
very  early  epoch  the  type  of  what  the  Ger- 
mans call  the  Centralbau  prevailed.  The 
centred  building ;  so  we  might  designate 
the  plan  and  structure  which  presuppose  a 
supremely  important  central  feature,  a  hall, 
however  opened  up  on  three  sides  or  four 
[84] 


TOWER    OF    CHURCH    OF    ST.    UADEGONDE.    POITIERS.    (VIENNE)    FRANCE. 
PLATE     XXI 


H 
oa 

&4 


Churches  of  the  Byzantine  Type 

sides  to  minor  divisions,  aisles,  porches,  and 
apses.  See  page  86.  This  great  hall  might 
be  covered  by  a  cupola,  or,  as  often  is  found 
in  the  smaller  churches,  its  vertical  walls 
are  carried  up  into  a  drum  or  round  tower 
roofed  in  any  one  of  several  ways.  The  es- 
sence of  the  distinction  between  this  plan 
and  the  Western  plan  is  the  absence  of  the 
"long  drawn  aisle";  and  the  arrangement 
of  the  whole  around  a  central  point  from 
which  the  structures  of  the  church  may  be 
said  to  radiate.  There  were,  as  has  been 
said,  straight-lined  churches  in  the  East : 
and  in  like  manner  there  were  radiating 
buildings  in  the  West,  notably,  the  round 
churches  of  San  Stefano  in  Rome  and  the 
cathedral  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  St.  Gereon  at 
Cologne,  and  the  rather  numerous  baptis- 
teries, as  at  Florence,  Parma,  Ravenna  and 
Pisa,  which  in  their  original  state  of  being, 
were  not  baptisteries  only,  but  became  so 
after  the  basilica  churches  with  nave  and 
aisle  had  been  built  in  the  same  towns 
for  the  cathedrals  proper.  Still,  in  connec- 
tion with  our  immediate  question,  that  of 
[85] 


Plan  of  Church  of  S.  Sophia  at  Constantinople.    Scale 
about  100  feet  to  one  inch. 


^•lan  of  Church  of  S.  Theodore,  Athen"!.    Scale  about 

25  feet  to  one  inch. 

86 


Byzantine  Exteriors  not  Effective 

the  artistic  appreciation  of  a  building  of 
any  epoch,  it  is  better  to  study  round  or  ra- 
diating buildings  in  their  own  home  of  the 
Eastern  provinces,  as  we  study  the  basilica- 
shaped  buildings  in  Western  Europe. 

Now  the  peculiarity  of  the  Eastern 
church-building,  that  of  the  central  hall,  is 
generally  the  absence  of  any  very  impress- 
ive exterior.  This  was  not  necessarily  the 
result  of  the  plan  adopted.  One  does  not 
see  readily  any  sufficient  cause  for  the  gen- 
eral neglect  among  Eastern  designers  of  the 
appearance  from  outside  ;  unless  it  be  this 
— that  the  cities  of  the  Levant  were  then  as 
they  are  now  made  up,  so  far  as  the  stranger 
who  walks  their  streets  can  discern,  of  blind 
whitewashed  walls  upon  which  open  only 
the  doorways  of  the  dwellings,  and  here  and 
there,  in  the  ground  story,  a  small  unarchi- 
tectural  and  carefully  grated  window.  The 
street  effects,  common  to  the  cities  of  the 
north  of  Europe,  even  as  early  as  the 
eleventh  century,  and  well  known  to  us  for 
their  picturesque  and  varied  character,  are, 
in  the  Levant,  simply  non-existent,  except 
[87] 


Early  Mediaeval  Design 

in  those  few  cities  which  show  strong  ex- 
ternal marks  of  commercial  intercourse  with 
Europe.  The  interior  is  indeed  the  chief 
thing  in  church  building,  anywhere,  but  in 
the  Byzantine  art  it  is  everything,  or  so  the 
student  thinks.  Plate  XXIII  shows  the 
interior  of  the  great  church  of  Santa  Sophia, 
at  Constantinople,  which  seems  to  many 
the  noblest  architectural  conception  of  the 
Christian  world  in  any  of  its  parts.  Plate 
XXIV  gives  the  exterior  of  the  same  build- 
ing :  and  it  will  be  seen  at  once  how  much 
there  needs  to  be  taken  from  it  that  its  true 
Byzantine  character  may  be  judged.  The 
tall  round  minarets  are  modern  Turkish 
additions,  put  there  for  the  muezzin  who 
calls  to  prayer,  the  enormous  buttresses, 
looking  like  lofty  houses  without  windows, 
which  rise  one  on  either  side  of  the  great 
arch  in  the  flank  of  the  church,  are  addi- 
tions resulting  partly  from  the  fall  of  the 
original  cupola  in  the  sixth  century  and 
partly  from  much  later  reparations ;  and 
all  the  small  cupolas  near,  with  the  build- 
ings which  they  cover,  are  wholly  modern, 
[88] 


CHURCH   HAGIA   SOPHIA,   CONSTANTINOPU:,     KXTKKIOR. 


PLATE     XXIV. 


CHURCH    OF    S.    THEODORE,    ATHENS,    GREECE. 


Santa  Sophia  in  Constantinople 

at  least  in  their  present  form,  whatever 
foundations  of  fifth  century  work  there 
may  be  enclosed  within  them.  It  appears 
then  that  the  only  striking  external  feature 
of  the  original  building  would  be  the  slow 
rise  and  swell  of  the  central  cupola,  led  up 
to  by  the  similar  curves  of  the  two  half 
cupolas  covering  the  semicircular  apses  at 
the  northeast  and  southwest,  and  contrast- 
ing boldly  with  the  huge  flat  wall  beneath 
the  arch,  on  the  northwest  and  southeast. 
The  magnificent  conception  of  this  inte- 
rior is  well  known  to  be  unique  among  the 
Byzantine  churches ;  that  is  to  say,  no  one 
of  them  has  this  same  remarkable  system 
of  construction  with  four  very  open  arches 
(one  hundred  foot  span)  supporting  this 
low-pitched  cupola  which  is  then  buttressed 
in  a  way  by  the  half  cupolas  on  two  sides 
producing  the  striking  interior  form  quite 
visible  in  the  Plate  XXIII.  In  other  re- 
spects, however,  this  great  church  is  rather 
the  typical  Byzantine  church  than  a  build- 
ing apart.  The  other  churches  are  like  it  in 
construction  ;  they  are  like  it  in  having  the 
[89] 


E^rly  Mediaeval  Design 

central  mass  nearly  circular,  and  the  minor 
parts  ranged  around  it  on  every  side  ;  they 
are  like  it  in  having  drawn  their  construc- 
tional character  from  the  vaulted  buildings 
of  Persia  and  the  neighboring  lands.  Thus 
the  church  of  St.  Theodore  at  Athens,  of 
which  the  plan  is  given  on  page  86, 
though  it  has  three  apses  turned  towards 
the  east  and  a  narthex  at  the  west  end,  is 
still  a  building  with  a  dominant  central  fea- 
ture around  which  other  parts  are  grouped. 
Plate  XXIV  shows  this  plainly,  for  noth- 
ing can  be  more  remote  from  the  basil- 
ica type  than  the  group  here  shown.  The 
cupola  is  evidently  not  complete — not  a 
fully  organized  design — it  has  been  roofed 
as  cheaply  as  possible  and  at  as  low  a  level 
as  the  windows  would  allow :  for  these 
windows  replace  the  great  light-openings 
of  the  western  clearstory.  In  Moldavia 
and  in  the  southern  provinces  of  Russia 
these  cupolas  are  found  by  hundreds  with 
their  design  fairly  well  worked  out.  Plate 
XXV  shows  a  monastery  in  the  region  of  the 
Caucasus,  in  which  the  principal  church 
[90  1 


CHAPKL.     NOW    A    MLSKL.M,    AT    NANCY,    (MEIRTHE    KT    MOSKLLi:)     TRANCE. 
PLATE     XXVI. 


Smaller  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches 

and  three  smaller  chapels  are  all  completed 
by  the  carrying  up  of  just  such  cupolas 
above  these  central  divisions.  Now  these 
buildings  are  all  very  small.  The  cupolas 
are  twenty-five  feet,  eighteen  feet,  sixteen 
feet  wide,  within :  St.  Theodore's  little 
shrine  would  not  hold  a  hundred  worship- 
pers. It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  exterior  de- 
sign with  the  high  cupola  was  worked  out 
for  these  small  buildings ;  but  it  is  easy  to 
see  also  that  the  general  plan  is  capable  of 
nobler  exterior  treatment.  If,  therefore, 
there  should  ever  be  an  attempt  made  to 
build  in  modern  Europe  in  the  Byzantine 
style,  it  will  be  modified,  inevitably,  by 
this  possibility,  and  by  the  obvious  neces- 
sity of  satisfying  the  general  demand  for  a 
splendid  outside.  The  recently  built  ca- 
thedral in  London,  spoken  of  below  in 
Chapter  X,  is  an  instance  of  this. 

Still,  the  glory  of  the  Byzantine  style 
must  be  found  in  its  interior  decoration. 
The  Greek  half  of  the  Empire  took  from 
the  Roman  masters  of  the  world  the  taste 
for  splendid  material ;  and,  wherever  some 
[91] 


Early  Mediseval  Design 

money  could  be  had,  the  alabaster  and  the 
rosy  and  gray  marbles  of  Greek  and  Asiatic 
quarries  were  brought  to  the  spot.  Mosaic 
gave  a  more  vivid  color  ;  and  this  gave  also 
the  opportunity  for  the  telling  of  the  Gos- 
pel story  and  the  legends  of  saints  in  per- 
manent pictures.  St.  Mark's  church  at 
Venice  is  the  type  for  Europeans  to  study. 
The  sense  of  pure  delight  in  glowing  and 
harmonious  color,  combined  with  soft  and 
flowing  line,  is  nowhere  so  strongly  felt : 
no  building,  until  Santa  Sophia  can  be 
cleansed  of  Turkish  whitewash,  will  affect 
the  lover  of  splendid  decoration  so  power- 
fully. 


[92] 


CHAPTER  IV 

CENTRAL   MEDI-EVAL   DESIGN 

Gothic  architecture  is  a  natural  develop- 
ment of  the  Romanesque  architecture  of 
northern  France.  It  took  its  origin  in  the 
second  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  that 
origin  being  wholly  constructional.  The 
Romanesque  builders  were  extremely  har- 
assed by  their  problems  of  masonry  roof- 
ing, as  mentioned  in  Chapter  III,  and  there 
was  taken  up  as  a  device  to  facilitate  this 
vaulting  the  plan  of  an  arched  rib  of  care- 
fully-worked hard  stone,  carried  diagonally 
across  the  open  space  which  required  the 
stone  roof:  then  another  similar  rib  cross- 
ing the  first  one,  leaving  only  triangles, 
each  about  one-fourth  of  the  full  size  of  the 
open  space,  which  triangles  could  be  vaulted 
with  great  ease.  Instead  of  a  square  or  par- 
allelogram containing  a  thousand  square 
feet  horizontal  and  needing  to  be  covered 
[93] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

by  a  somewhat  complicated  vault,  all  that 
was  required  was  the  careful  adjusting  of 
two  narrow  arches  in  cut  stone,  and  then 
the  very  simple  vaulting  of  each  one  of  the 
four  triangles,  about  two  hundred  square  feet 
each,  horizontal.  This  was  a  simple  and 
rather  obvious  device,  one  would  think  :  but 
it  took  thirty  years  to  develop,  and  once 
complete,  the  whole  great  system  of  Gothic 
building  and  the  whole  Gothic  style,  in- 
cluding everything  from  the  cathedral  of 
Reims  to  the  smallest  chapel,  came  from  it 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

If  the  student  desire  a  clear  notion  of 
the  nature  and  the  appearance  of  Gothic 
rib-vaulting  he  may  study  Plate  XXVI,  in 
which  the  structure  can  be  seen  better  than 
in  the  high  vaults  of  a  cathedral.  Each 
rib  is  a  part  of  an  independent  arch  of 
stone,  perhaps  a  foot  wide  and  twenty 
inches  or  two  feet  deep.  The  arch-solids 
(voussoirs)  are  very  carefully  cut,  and  the 
arch  built  with  all  its  company  of  cor- 
responding arches  to  meet  at  top,  midway, 
in  a  boss  of  cut  stone.  This  done,  the 
[94] 


Development  of  Gothic  Architecture 

triangular  spaces  are  easy  enough  to  vault 
with  smaller  and  rougher  stones,  and  the 
haunches  are  loaded  outside  and  above 
with  still  ruder  masonry. 

The  style  was  developed  in  that  tract  of 
country  which  lies  between  the  Loire  on  the 
south,  the  Somme  on  the  north,  the  Meuse 
on  the  east,  and,  on  the  west,  a  line  drawn 
north  and  south  through  the  cities  of  Caen 
and  Angers — a  district  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles^ 
equal  to  England  and  Wales  south  of  the 
Trent  and  the  Mersey,  or,  say,  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  The  style  was  never  quite 
at  its  best  except  in  what  is  now  France, 
though  the  boundaries  of  the  district  above 
named  were  soon  overpassed  by  the  per- 
fected Gothic.  The  most  nearly  French, 
and  therefore  most  normal  and  faultless, 
examples  out  of  France  are  those  of  the 
Rhine  and  of  northern  Spain  where  French 
master-masons  seem  to  have  worked.  The 
Gothic,  beginning  as  early  as  1190  in  Eng- 
land, is  of  extreme  beauty  in  a  simple, 
5[uasi-domestic,  less  grand  and  less  perfectly 
[95] 


Central  Mediseval  Design 

developed  way  than  the  French.  The 
Gothic  of  Germany  and  the  Austrian 
dominions  differs  from  the  normal  type 
in  being  somewhat  fantastical  and  irregular, 
but  still  more  in  a  lack  of  a  thoroughly 
intelligent  proportion  of  the  parts.  The 
so-called  Gothic  of  Italy  is  never  admirable 
as  a  style  except  in  a  few  Cistercian 
monastic  churches :  and  the  magnificent 
cathedrals  such  as  Orvieto,  Siena,  Monreale, 
and  Florence  are  rightly  beloved  indeed 
for  their  magnificent  combination  of  the 
decorative  arts  of  form  and  color — their 
mosaics,  their  delicate  sculptures  in  marble, 
their  wrought  and  highly  developed 
porches,  their  superb  wall-tombs — but  are 
of  minor  architectural  importance  from  the 
very  fact  of  their  complete  lack  of  con- 
structional significance. 

Let  us  consider  the  cathedral  of  Amiens 
in  the  department  of  the  Somme,  about 
sixty  miles  north  of  Paris.  This  we  may 
take  as  being  the  accepted  representative  of 
French  Gothic  churches,  lacking  indeed 
some  features  which  others  of  its  own  time 
[96] 


A  Thirteenth  Century  French  Cathedral 

have  retained,  but  completely  typical  in  its 
plan  and  structure.  Plate  XXVII  gives  the 
interior  looking  westward  from  the  choir  and 
shows  the  nave  in  steep  perspective  so  that 
its  seven  bays  are  much  foreshortened,  and 
with  this  a  part  of  the  north  aisle  and  a 
part  of  the  choir  in  which  we  stand.  The 
great  height  of  the  nave  is  shown  without 
that  sometimes  disagreeable  appearance  of 
a  narrowness  disproportionate  to  the  height 
such  as  is  sometimes  seen  in  photographs 
taken  directly  on  the  axis  of  so  lofty  a 
church.  The  members  which  go  to  make 
up  this  great  height  are  also  visible ;  the 
j&rst  row  of  nave  arches  repeated  in  the 
choir  and  in  the  transept,  the  second  story 
of  arched  openings  which  gives  us  the  tri- 
forium,^  and  the  third  story  which  is  called 
the  clearstory,  and  which  contains  the 
great  windows  as  well  as  the  vaulting 
which  constitutes  the  inner  roof  of  the 
church.     The   round   window   in   the   dis- 

'Triforium:  Properly,  a  gallery  more  or  less  open,  built  in 
£he  wall  opposite  the  aisle  roof,  and  therefore  above  the  great 
arches  of  the  nave  and  choir  and  below  the  clearstory  windows. 
Often,  a  gallery  in  the  wall  below  the  clearstory  but  lees  ao- 
oorately  placed. 

[97] 


Central  Medieval  Design 

tance  forms  an  important  part  of  the  west 
front.  Close  to  the  spectator  the  lofty  wall 
broken  up  into  canopies  and  arches  and 
crowned  with  a  forest  of  pinnacles  is  en- 
tirely of  carved  oak,  and  includes  an  in- 
credible number  of  most  exquisite  carvings, 
which  decorate  all  parts  of  the  partition 
itself  as  well  as  the  stalls  or  the  seats  for 
choristers  which  are  dimly  seen  below. 
The  iron  gates,  seen  as  closed,  give  access  to 
this  enclosure  which  is  the  liturgical  choir, 
that  is  to  say,  the  enclosure  made  within 
the  architectural  choir,  and  intended  to 
serve  for  the  clergy  and  their  assistants. 
As  to  epochs,  the  whole  structure  of  the 
church  is  of  the  thirteenth  century :  its 
vaulting,  its  arches  and  piers  and  windows 
and  its  delicate  sculpture ;  and  its  original 
plan,  though  conceived  during  the  last 
years  of  the  twelfth  century,  cannot  be 
thought  to  have  been  perfected  until  the 
structure  rose  upon  it.  The  carved  work 
of  the  choir  is  very  much  later,  represent- 
ing the  last  development  of  Gothic  art  and 
belonging  more  properly  to  our  Chapter  V : 
[98] 


The  Essential  Charm  of  Gothic  Art 

it  is  known  to  have  been  executed  between 
1508  and  1520.  A  very  few  years  later 
were  wrought  the  splendid  sculptures  in 
stone  of  the  outer  choir  screen — the  mass- 
sive  wall  which  encloses  this  graceful  work 
in  carved  oak  :  but  these  must  be  referred 
to  Chapter  V.  The  great  iron  gates,  beau- 
tiful of  their  kind,  belong  to  the  eighteenth 
century  :  they  replace  a  noble  jub^  or  rood 
screen  which  once  separated  the  choir  from 
the  crossing,  where  nave  and  transepts 
meet. 

Now  it  is  clear  enough  what  we  have  to 
admire  and  enjoy  when  we  stand  within 
such  a  church  as  this.  The  least  attentive 
beholder  is  struck  by  the  great  height  of 
the  church  ;  and  the  roof,  one  hundred  and 
forty  feet  above  the  head,  is  not  invisible 
nor  lost  in  darkness,  but  shows  its  elaborate 
structure  of  elastic  ribs  carrying  thin  vaults 
which  bear  upon  the  ribs  and  thrust  in 
every  direction,  so  that  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  construction  is  readily  grasped. 
The  height  is  made  manifest — it  is  in  a 
manner  explained — by  its  division  into 
[99] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

three  stories,  each  of  which  again  seems  to 
be  subdivided  by  the  sculptured  capitals 
which  mark  the  springing  of  the  arches. 
The  cruciform  plan  leading  the  eye  away 
into  halls  and  passages,  not  perceived  at 
first,  adds  to  the  ultimate  effect  of  grandeur 
dependent  upon  space,  however  much  it 
may  delay  the  fullness  of  that  impression. 
The  abundant  detail  in  mouldings  and  in 
floral  sculpture  as  well  as  in  constructional 
elements  probably  increases  the  effect  of 
size  by  means  of  the  constant  repetition  of 
its  similar  groups  :  and  it  is  in  itself  capa- 
ble of  giving  the  greatest  pleasure  to  the 
student  who  finds  in  it,  as  it  were,  a 
museum  of  decorative  sculpture  arranged 
not  in  meaningless  succession  as  when  frag- 
ments are  arranged  upon  a  shelf,  but  in 
highly  significant  order  and  in  sequences 
both  horizontal  and  vertical.  There  is  still 
for  the  student  of  such  matters  the  con- 
stantly growing  respect  for  the  logical  acu- 
men of  the  builders,  who  insert  nothing  for 
mere  ornamentation  but  who  make  their 
constructional  members  tell  as  decorative 
[100] 


The  Gothic  Treatment  of  the  Interior 

features.  Here  are  no  slabs  of  precious 
marble  nor  any  bas-reliefs  delicately 
wrought  in  stucco,  as  in  the  buildings  of 
imperial  Rome,  nor,  at  present,  any  chro- 
matic effects  whatever,  except  those  of  the 
great  windows ;  for  whatever  traces  of 
painting  were  left  from  the  Middle  Ages 
have  been  destroyed  long  ago.  The  build- 
ing can  never  have  affected  surface  decora- 
tion, in  the  Roman  sense :  a  decoration 
covering  all  parts  of  its  interior  and  con- 
cealing or  ignoring  the  structure ;  the 
effective  paintings  that  there  were  we  know 
to  have  been  local  in  their  character,  near 
the  eye,  and  having  a  definite  message  of 
ecclesiastical  import.  The  decorative  in- 
stinct of  the  Gothic  builders  was  not  there 
but  in  the  treatment  of  the  actual  building. 
Let  us  consider  another  great  cathedral, 
that  of  Reims  in  the  department  of  the 
Marne.  Plate  XXVIII  gives  two  views  in 
the  interior,  both  near  the  east  end.  In  the 
one,  you  look  westward  far  down  the  north 
aisle,  about  four  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
from  where  we  stand,  to  the  open  door  seen 
[101] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

in  the  west  front.  In  the  other,  we  look 
across  the  choir  proper,  that  is  the  litur- 
gical enclosure,  from  southwest  to  northeast, 
seeing  the  beginnings  of  the  curve  of  the 
chevet  or  rounded  apse.  In  these  interior 
views  are  seen  in  a  more  intimate  way  the 
characteristics  of  a  great  Gothic  church. 
The  vastness,  the  height,  the  soaring  gran- 
deur of  the  interior  are  for  the  moment  ig- 
nored, and  we  see  the  lower  vaults  and  the 
clustered  pillars  which  support  them  and 
the  higher  vaults  of  the  nave,  as  well  as  the 
delicate  sculpture  of  the  capitals.  The 
interior,  however,  though  certainly  the 
thing  of  primary  importance,  is  not  all  that 
we  have  to  study. 

The  outside  of  the  Gothic  Church  is  as 
closely  related  to  the  structure  as  is  the  in- 
side and  forms  one  with  it.  Plate  XXIX 
gives  the  exterior  of  Amiens  cathedral. 
The  highest  windows  are  those  of  the  clear- 
story, which  is  the  upper  part  of  the  central 
nave,  in  this  case  the  nave  of  the  choir. 
Below  these  is  the  roof  of  the  inner  aisle 
hidden  here  by  the  pyramidal  roofs  of  the 
[102] 


CATHEDRAL  AT  AMIENS   (SOMME)   FRANCE,  CHOIR  AND  SOUTH  TRANSEPT 

FROM    THE    S.    B 
PT.ATB  XXIX. 


CATHEDRAL  AT  CHARTRES   (EURE   ET  LOIRE),   FRANCE    FROM   THE   S    E 
PLATE     XXX. 


The  Gothic  Treatment  of  the  Exterior 

chapels,  built  much  later.  Now  as  to  the 
forest  of  flying  buttresses,  those  sloping  bars 
of  stone  carried  on  stone  arches,  which  sur- 
round the  clearstory,  the  only  purpose  of 
these  is  to  receive  and  neutralize  the  thrust 
of  the  vaults  within.  The  high  vault  above 
the  clearstory  pushes  against  the  uppermost 
flying  buttresses.  The  vault  of  the  inner 
aisle  has  its  much  less  formidable  thrust 
taken  up  by  the  vaults  of  the  outer  aisle  as 
far  as  the  lines  of  the  plan  are  straight, 
east  and  west,  and  by  those  of  the  chapels 
as  soon  as  the  curve  of  the  chevet  ^  begins. 
By  means  of  the  double  set  of  flying  but- 
tresses, those  within  and  higher  and  the 
outer  and  lower  ones,  the  thrust  of  the 
high  vaults  is  carried  across  the  whole 
space  occupied  by  the  two  aisles,  and  finally 
turned  over  to  the  upright  piers  which 
themselves  serve  also  as  buttresses  for  the 
outer  aisle.     Or,  to  approach  the  same  set 


^  Chevet :  In  mediseval  and  especially  Grothic  architecture 
the  rounded  end  of  the  choir  including  the  aisles  which  pass 
around  the  sanctuary  and  the  chapels  outside  of  the  aisles. 
The  shape  may  be  curvilinear  or  polygonal.  The  original  terra 
in  French  is  applied  to  square  east  ends  also;  but  this  is  hardly 
accepted  in  the  English  usage. 

[103] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

of  counteracting  forces  from  without,  we 
have  as-  we  walk  along  either  flank  of  the 
church,  or  around  the  curve  of  the  chevet, 
a  row  of  heavy  and  solidly  built  stone  piers 
with  much  their  greatest  horizontal  dimen- 
sion in  a  direction  across  the  axis  of  the 
church ;  that  is  to  say,  each  one  of  them  is 
perhaps  twenty  feet  in  and  out  by  three 
feet  or  three  and  a  half  or  four  feet  in 
width,  measured  east  and  west.  Each  one 
of  these  piers  is  built  in  with  the  low  wall 
outside  the  outer  aisle,  or  of  the  chapel,  as 
seen  in  Plate  XXIX,  and  the  lower  part  of 
this  wall  helps  to  resist  the  thrust  of  the  roof- 
vaulting  of  that  same  aisle  or  chapel.  As 
the  pier  goes  up,  it  is  soon  left  clear  of  all 
walls  and  roofs,  and  the  flying  buttresses 
from  the  vaults  butt  against  it. 

The  Gothic  builders  had  other  thoughts 
over  and  above  their  logical  desire  to  show 
everywhere  the  true  structure.  They  had 
also  the  taste  for  upward-pointing  lines :  a 
taste  which  seems  to  have  grown  with  the 
development  of  the  style.  It  was  not  this 
taste  which  in  the  first  place  made  their 
[104] 


Gothic  Towers  and  Steep  Roofs 

buildings  high  as  compared  with  their 
width :  that  was  a  mere  matter  of  con- 
venience and  of  obtaining  very  large  win- 
dows above  the  aisle  roofs.  But  the  pointed 
arch  itself,  and  the  steep  roof  needed  to  pro- 
tect the  stone  vaults  from  rain  in  a  rainy 
climate,  led  these  builders  constantly  to- 
wards the  steeper  pitch,  the  sharper  point, 
the  more  lofty  and  soaring  design. 

Plate  XXX  shows  the  cathedral  of  Char- 
tres  seen  over  the  houses  of  the  town,  from 
the  southeast.  The  two  great  towers  on  the 
left  of  the  picture  are  those  which  flank 
the  west  front :  one  of  them,  the  simpler 
one,  seen  on  the  extreme  left  and  flanking 
the  west  front  on  the  south  is  the  most 
famous  tower  in  France  and  the  most  im- 
portant single  piece  of  work  in  the  history 
of  Gothic  tower-building,  because  it  shows 
in  a  faultless  way  the  transition  from 
Romanesque  to  Gothic  in  those  forms 
which  are  immediately  caused  by  the 
necessity  of  vaulting  the  interiors.  These 
secondary  parts  (for  the  vaulted  interior 
alone  can  be  called  a  primary  and  essential 
[105] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

part  of  the  Gothic  church)  sympathize 
with  that  vaulted  interior  in  the  soaring 
character  of  the  design,  as  has  been  said 
above.  The  other  tower  was  rebuilt  at  a 
much  later  period  and  typifies  perfectly 
the  florid  Gothic  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
We  are  to  imagine,  then,  two  towers  at  the 
west  end,  each  very  like  the  earlier  one : 
and,  as  the  picture  shows,  two  others 
flanked  the  south  transept.  In  the  Plate, 
one  of  them  is  covered  by  scafiblding,  some 
repairs  being  in  progress.  Two  similar 
towers  were  intended  to  flank  the  north 
transept :  and  a  tower,  undoubtedly 
planned  for  a  larger  and  higher  mass  than 
any  one  of  the  flanking  towers  just  de- 
scribed, was  to  have  risen  from  that  part  of 
the  church  where  the  transept  crosses  the 
great  nave — the  "  crossing "  as  it  is 
commonly  called.  Looking  at  this  view 
of  Chartres  cathedral,  we  are  to  imagine  it 
then  as  not  having  that  high-shouldered 
look  caused  by  the  level  line  of  the  ridge  of 
the  church,  because  that  roof  would  not  be 
seen  except  in  small  patches,  the  seven 
[106] 


Gothic  Buildings  Often  Unfinished 

great  spires  rising  high  above  it  and  the 
seven  square  towers  which  support  them 
concealing  the  roof  except  here  and  there 
as  the  spectator  moves  about  the  church. 
Now  it  is  an  unquestioned  reproach  to  the 
Gothic  style  that  no  one  of  these  great 
churches  was  ever  completed.  Certain 
towers  there  were  which  have  been  so 
shattered  by  the  burning  of  the  roofs  that 
they  have  been  taken  down.  Spires  have 
existed  which  have  now  disappeared,  but 
the  greater  part  of  the  magnificent  towers 
conceived  by  the  builders  of  the  early 
years  of  the  thirteenth  century  have  re- 
mained incomplete,  and  the  churches  which 
were  to  have  had  them  are  only  to  be 
judged  by  an  effort  of  the  mind  akin  to 
that  effort  we  have  to  make  in  considering 
the  buildings  of  classical  antiquity.  We 
are  better  off  with  Gothic  art  than  with 
Greek  art,  because  we  have  the  details  : 
and  also  because  we  have  that  which  no 
Greek  building  can  be  said  to  have  had, 
the  splendid  and  impressive  interiors  :  but 
nowhere  is  there  a  great  Gothic  church 
[107] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

complete  in  its  intended  exterior  effect. 
The  nearest  approach  to  completion  is  un- 
doubtedly to  be  found  in  England,  and,  for 
a  choice,  in  the  lovely  cathedral  of  Salis- 
bury. The  architecture  is  not  nearly  as 
splendid  as  on  the  Continent ;  it  is  more 
tranquil,  more  unpretending ;  it  is  less 
extraordinary  in  scale,  surpassing  in  a  less 
formidable  fashion  the  buildings  of  resi- 
dence and  of  government :  and  partly  as  a 
result  of  this  it  has  been  easier  to  build  and 
easier  to  maintain  these  buildings  in  their 
intended  completion.  Plate  XXXI  shows 
this  cathedral  amid  the  trees  of  its  close  and 
well  explains  that  peculiarity  of  position  in 
which  some  English  cathedrals  are  so  much 
differentiated  from  those  of  the  Continent. 
In  spite  of  the  trees,  however,  the  great 
peculiarity  is  seen  of  two  transepts — one 
crossing  the  nave  at  the  point  where  the 
tower  rises,  as  was  the  intention  in  the 
Chartres  cathedral,  Plate  XXX  :  the  other, 
to  the  eastward  of  that,  and  flanking  the 
choir  in  a  curious  way,  without  example 
on  the  Continent. 

[108] 


CATHEDRAL  AT  SALISBURY,  WILTS.   ENGLAND.   FROM  THE   S.   E. 
PLATE   XXXI. 


BELL  TOWER   OF  CATHEDRAL,   FLORENCE,  TUSCANY. 
PLATE     XXXII 


Marked  Character  of  Gothic  Building 

Now  in  judging  such  building,  and  such 
artistic  intention  as  this,  it  is  evident  that 
we  cannot  use  the  maxims  which  are  con- 
venient to  observe  in  the  case  of  a  Greek 
or  a  Greco-Roman  monument.  Lightness 
takes  the  place  of  evident  stability  :  that  is 
the  first  thing  to  notice.  It  is  not  so  much 
that  the  walls  are  thin,  as  that  they  have 
disappeared :  there  are  no  walls — only  a 
series  of  piers  dividing  windows,  the  open- 
ing filled  with  glass  being  much  greater,  if 
measured  along  a  horizontal  line  running 
through  the  windows,  than  is  the  extent 
of  the  solid  masonry.  You  see  at  once 
wherein  there  is  an  excuse  for  the  saying 
"  a  wall  of  glass  with  a  roof  of  stone."  But 
there  is  more  than  this :  the  primary  ob- 
ject of  the  designer  has  been  to  treat  his 
construction  as  the  main  inspiration  of  his 
design.  Inside  and  out  everything  is 
shown  as  it  really  is,  the  exact  duty  done 
by  every  stone  in  the  structure  is  clearly 
visible  to  even  an  uncareful  observer.  This 
may  be  thought  true  of  early  Greek  work 
as  well  :  but  then  the  structure  of  the  Greek 
[109] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

temple  is  the  simplest  conceivable,  a  mere 
carrying  of  stone  beams  upon  stone  posts — 
no  arches  to  thrust,  no  windows  to  open  in 
the  wall,  most  of  all,  no  attempt  to  roof  any- 
thing with  masonry  except  in  so  far  as  a  stone 
beam  is  strong  enough  to  span  a  small  open 
space  between  two  strong  pillars.  More- 
over, the  Greek  temple  was  so  covered  up 
with  painting,  and  where  the  paint  did  not 
conceal  the  whole  surface  that  surface  was 
already  so  carefully  smoothed  and  unified, 
that  it  was  hard  to  distinguish  stone  from 
stone  even  in  the  marble-built  temples  of 
Athens — whereas  those  of  the  soft  stone 
regions,  coated  with  stucco,  were  in  archi- 
tectural effect  absolutely  monoliths.  As 
for  the  Roman  structure,  built  with  unex- 
ampled massiveness,  and  wonderfully  im- 
posing in  its  mass  and  in  the  great  size  and 
noble  proportions  of  its  interiors,  it  was 
concealed  from  view  by  the  entirely  con- 
tradictory pretense  at  trabeated  construc- 
tion in  the  modified  Greek  orders  of  col- 
umns and  pilasters :  and  where  these  were 
not  in  use  the  walls  were  very  commonly 
[110] 


Italian  Pointed  Style  Hardly  Gothic 

concealed  by  marble  in  great  sheets,  by 
tiling  of  glass,  or  by  moulded  stucco.  The 
Gothic  building  also  was  painted  :  nor  was 
there  any  hesitation  on  any  one's  part  in 
putting  up  surfaces  of  stucco  to  paint  upon 
where  an  elaborate  picture  was  wanted  : 
but  this  concealed  nothing  except  the  joints 
of  a  few  courses  of  stone.  The  essential 
facts  of  the  structure  remained  visible  out- 
doors and  in,  and  it  was  by  a  judicious  pro- 
portioning of  the  parts  of  these  structures, 
each  to  all  the  others,  that  the  chief  archi- 
tectural effect  was  obtained. 

Another  class  of  fourteenth  century 
buildings  must  be  named,  the  Italian 
Gothic  churches.  Plate  XXXII  gives  the 
most  perfect  piece  of  work  among  them, 
the  tower  known  as  Giotto's  Campanile. 
Its  exterior  face  is  entirely  sheathed  in 
marble,  thin  slabs  for  the  most  part,  white 
which  has  grown  yellow,  red  which  has 
grown  a  warm  brown,  and  black  or  nearly 
black  ;  and  to  the  larger  members  of  the 
elaborate  composition  is  added  the  minute 
mosaic  of  one  band  after  another  all  the 
[111] 


Central  Mediaeval  Design 

way  up,  and  the  still  more  delicate  play  of 
light  and  shade  caused  by  slight  and  well 
modelled  reliefs  of  ornamental  character. 
Down  below,  unseen  in  the  photograph,  is 
a  row  of  statues  in  niches,  and  two  horizon- 
tal bands  of  bas-reliefs  of  sacred  and  legend- 
ary subject.  The  tower  is  exceptional  in  its 
perfect  building :  but  there  is  nothing  in 
the  scheme  of  construction  :  it  is  almost  as 
simple  as  a  Greek  temple.  And  this  is 
where  the  great  cathedral  by  its  side  is 
similar  in  character.  Not  Gothic  in  pro- 
portion, nor  in  any  system  of  buttresses, 
nor  in  the  disappearing  of  walls  in  con- 
structional piers,  nor  in  the  disposition  of 
the  sculpture ;  it  is  Gothic  only  in  its 
having  pointed  arches,  and  ribbed  vaults, 
though  these  are  so  stayed  up  by  massive 
masonry  that  the  thing  is  no  more  elastic 
than  the  halls  of  Roman  thermae.^     But  it 

'Thermae:  In  Latin  an  establishment  for  warm  baths:  a 
plural  noun  used  for  a  single  building  or  group  of  buildings. 
The  Thermae  of  Caracalla  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  occupied 
all  the  space  within  a  bounding  wall  which  formed  a  square  of 
1,100  feet  (about  twenty-eight  acres)  and  within  this  were 
gardens,  running  grounds  and  the  like,  and  among  these  the 
massive  central  building  itself,  400x750  feet,  twice  the  space  oc- 
cupied by  the  capitol  at  Washington,  which  is  also  immeasur- 
ably less  massive  and  permanent  in  structure. 

[  112  ] 


Beauty  of  Italian  Detail 

is  beautiful  in  detail,  encrusted  and  em- 
bossed, and  most  imposing  in  mass  with- 
01  t,  however  ill-proportioned  in  the  nave, 
within ;  and  even  within  it  is  a  grandiose 
nave  up  which  you  walk  towards  the  cul- 
mination of  the  whole  in  the  sanctuary  un- 
der the  great  cupola. 


I  113  ] 


CHAPTER  V 

LATE    MEDIEVAL    DESIGN 

In  Chapter  IV  we  have  seen  how  strongly 
the  artistic  effect  of  the  Gothic  churches  de- 
pends upon  their  structure.  Everything  in 
the  structure  depends  upon  and  leads  up  to 
the  vaulting  ;  everything  in  decorative  treat- 
ment depends  upon  the  structure.  That  is 
true  except  in  so  far  as  the  universally  felt 
need  of  ornament  founded  on  the  study  of 
nature  and  of  abstract  form  modifies  design. 
Thus  the  carving  in  conventionalized  leaf- 
age of  a  band,  straight  or  seemingly  bent 
around  a  pier,  and  the  choice  of  colors  in 
a  decorative  window  or  a  painted  panel  of 
wall  beneath  a  window,  are  indeed  inde- 
pendent of  the  structure.  Moreover,  the 
Gothic  sculptors  were  as  exceptionally  en- 
ergetic and  forcible  as  the  Gothic  builders, 
and  worked  with  them  in  the  production  of 
great  schemes  of  associated  sculpture  which 
[lU] 


The  Florid  Gothic  of  France 

were  in  harmony  with  the  work  of  these 
very  bold  and  skillful  builders.  Now,  when, 
after  the  final  expulsion  of  the  English  king 
and  his  armies  from  France,  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  domestic  feuds  between  hostile 
parties,  and  the  pacification  of  the  country 
under  Charles  VII,  there  was  a  sudden 
recrudescence  of  building  and  of  decorative 
art,  the  half  ruined  churches  were  repaired, 
those  destroyed  were  replaced.  Between 
1455  and  1515  there  was  a  revival  of  archi- 
tectural art  comparable  to  that  of  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century.  There  were  not  as 
many  great  churches  undertaken,  because 
nearly  every  diocese  had  its  cathedral,  and 
because  the  exclusively  ecclesiastical  point 
of  view  was  no  longer  held  by  the  people 
of  the  towns  or  by  the  nobility :  but  this 
was  made  good  by  the  great  increase  in  the 
number  and  splendor  of  civic  and  private 
buildings. 

There  is,  then,  a  new  and  very  magnifi- 
cent Gothic  art  beginning  about  the  time 
of  the  conquest  of  Bordeaux  and  Gascony, 
when  the  English  armies  were  finally  driven 
[115] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

out  of  France,  and  ending  only  with  the 
complete  establishment  of  the  classical  re- 
vival under  Francis  I.  Contemporaneous 
with  this,  or  nearly  so,  was  the  very  splen- 
did art  of  Spain,  that  curious  and  fantastic 
earliest  Renaissance  marked  for  us  by  such 
monuments  as  the  Casa  Lonja  of  Valencia, 
the  portal  of  the  University  at  Salamanca 
and  that  of  the  church  of  St.  Paul  at  Val- 
ladolid :  and  in  Belgium,  the  epoch  of  the 
great  town  halls,  that  of  Louvain  being  of 
about  1460  :  that  of  Audenarde  at  the  close 
of  the  epoch  now  under  consideration.  In 
Germany,  too,  there  was  the  beginning  of  a 
most  attractive  civic  architecture :  and  in 
England,  although  the  civil  war  of  the 
Yorkists  and  Lancastrians  postponed  any- 
thing like  peaceful  growth  in  art  until  near 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  there  was 
established,  beginning  with  the  accession  of 
Henry  VII,  in  1485,  the  so-called  Tudor 
architecture  which  was  really  a  continuation 
and  development  of  the  curious  Perpendicu- 
lar Gothic  art  with  the  added  feature  of 
fan- vaulting — the  most  original  and  per- 
[116] 


Florid  Gothic  in  Spain  and  England 

haps  also  the  most  splendid  artistic  achieve- 
ment of  the  British  Isles.  Now  in  all  this 
highly  organized  and  florid  art  there  was  a 
general  abandonment  of  the  constructional 
principle  which  had  been  the  root  of  the 
earlier  Gothic,  and  there  was  no  new  con- 
structional device  or  system  invented  to 
take  its  place.  The  new  art  is  an  art  of 
convenience  and  splendor,  but  it  has  no 
especial  root  in  the  necessities  of  building. 
The  new  Gothic  builders  were  very  skillful 
and  learned,  they  knew  rib-vaulting  by 
heart,  and  also  they  understood  vaulting  in 
the  solid  shell :  they  could  do  anything, — 
but  there  was  no  special  task  to  which  they 
had  set  themselves  and  therefore  they  played 
with  their  buildings.  Nor  was  there  to  be 
introduced,  during  the  centuries  that  were 
to  follow,  any  new  principle  of  building. 

In  Greek  building,  in  Roman  building, 
in  Romanesque  building,  and  especially  in 
its  culmination  in  the  Gothic  system,  we 
are  to  look  to  the  way  in  which  the  build- 
ings have  been  carried  out.  Plan,  that  is 
to  say  the  arrangement  of  parts  for  utility 
[117] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

or  internal  effect,  has  much  to  do  with  our 
appreciation  of  a  building :  but  the  struc- 
ture, the  actual  putting  together  of  materi- 
als, is  of  still  greater  importance.  You  do 
not  pretend  to  judge  of  a  Greek  temple 
without  being  able  almost  to  count  the 
stones  of  which  it  is  composed  or  without 
appreciating  fully  the  relative  part  which 
they  play.  In  Gothic  architecture,  assur- 
edly no  person  would  dream  of  finding  any 
enjoyment  in  a  church  without  having  first 
secured  a  good  working  knowledge  of  how 
it  came  to  be  what  it  is — how  the  stone 
roof  is  kept  in  place  in  the  wonderful  way 
that  we  see  it  and  what  part  is  played  by 
pier  and  fiying  buttress.  But  this  interest 
in  the  life  of  the  structure  becomes  faint  as 
we  consider  the  buildings  of  the  four  cen- 
turies beginning  with  the  year  1400.  We 
have  to  consider  some  splendid  works  of 
art  produced  between  that  year  and  the 
outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  but  in 
none  of  them  is  there  any  special  call  for 
studying  the  theory  or  practice  of  the 
builders.  They  may  build  well  or  they 
[118] 


Structure  Not  Expressed  in  the  Designs 

may  build  carelessly  :  that  is  comparatively 
indifferent  under  the  new  regime,  for  de- 
signs are  made  and  carried  out  for  their 
own  sake  ;  nor  is  the  master  of  construction 
any  longer  the  master  of  design. 

The  reader  will  understand  that  in  such 
general  statements  as  these  in  matters  of 
fine  art  there  are  always  many  drawbacks 
and  qualifications.  The  fifteenth  century 
had  still  a  deal  of  Gothic  vigor,  in  all  the 
north  of  Europe.  There  were  great  build- 
ers after,  as  before,  the  pivotal  year  1400. 
This  discussion  will  even  include  the  names 
of  men  especially  praised  as  being  great 
constructors  :  the  point  is  that  their  system 
of  construction  had  little  to  do  with  their 
design.  Jacopo  Sansovino  and  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren  were  great  builders,  but  their  de- 
signs were  not  in  any  special  way  the  better 
for  that.  Their  work  is  marked  everywhere 
with  the  modern  characteristic  of  being  de- 
signed abstractly,  and  as  if  intended  to  be 
carved  out  of  a  single  block,  and  afterwards 
put  into  terms  of  mortar-masonry  and  cut 
stone,  because  that  was  the  only  way  in 
[119] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

which    the    builders    of    the    time    could 
proceed. 

Let  us  consider  the  fan-vaulting  of  Eng- 
land. Its  earliest  appearance  is  in  the 
cloisters  of  Gloucester  cathedral,  built  after 
1375.  Plate  XXXIII  shows  the  eastern 
ambulatory  of  these  cloisters.  At  the  first 
glance  this  vault  seems  to  be  built  with 
ribs  like  that  of  Amiens  or  that  of  Reims, 
as  shown  in  the  plates  of  Chapter  IV ; 
but  the  network  of  projecting  ribs  in  the 
Gloucester  vault  is  a  simulacrum  only. 
The  vault  is  a  solid  stone  shell,  homo- 
geneous, and  built  of  large  pieces.  Plate 
XXXIV  shows  the  vault  of  the  choir-aisle 
of  Peterborough  cathedral  seen  as  looked 
at  from  below.  The  joints  of  the  stones 
can  be  made  out :  they  have  no  relation 
to  the  system  of  mouldings  and  panels. 
In  England,  however,  where  the  Gothic 
vaulting  system  had  never  been  as  impor- 
tant a  factor  in  art  as  it  was  on  the  Conti- 
nent, this  new  and  unique  system  of  vaulting 
was  introduced  as  soon  as  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  were  over.  The  three  great  monu- 
[120] 


CATHEDIIAL  AT  PETEKBORO',  NORTHANTS.    ENGLAND,    FAN    VAULTING    OF 

CHOIR    AISLE. 
PLATE    XXXIV. 


English  Florid  Gothic  and  Fan-Vaulting 

ments  of  this  "  fan-vaulting "  are  St. 
George's  Chapel  at  Windsor  Castle,  the 
Chapel  of  Henry  VII,  attached  to  West- 
minster Abbey  in  London,  and  chief  and 
noblest  of  all,  Kings  College  Chapel  at 
Cambridge.  This  last  may  well  be  thought 
the  finest  interior  in  England ;  and  the  other 
examples  mentioned  are  inferior  in  charm  : 
and  yet,  since  the  Cambridge  Chapel  has 
been  shown  in  photography  very  often,  it 
has  seemed  better  to  consider  here  less- 
known  examples.  The  vault  is  a  perfectly 
safe  building,  especially  on  a  small  scale, 
but  it  is  not  rib-vaulting.  When,  however, 
the  great  vault  of  Henry  the  Seventh's 
Chapel  at  Westminster  Abbey  was  under- 
taken, about  1515,  a  different  system  had 
to  be  followed.  The  span  or  clear  width 
of  the  nave  is  not  very  great  and  yet  the 
task  of  supporting  the  astonishing  stone 
roof,  seen  in  Plate  XXXV,  was  one  worthy 
of  the  shrewdest  and  most  daring  builder 
of  the  time.  The  stone  ribs  which  spring 
directly  from  the  uprights  with  but  the 
slightest  pretense  at  vaulting  shafts  in  little 
[121] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

round  mouldings  with  slightly  marked 
capitals,  are  really  the  arches  which  carry 
the  whole  stone  structure  of  the  roof.  The 
great  pendants  into  which  these  ribs  disap- 
pear, and  which  themselves  form  the  basis 
of  the  fan-vaulting  system,  are  of  course 
without  constructional  value.  The  roof  is 
to  be  taken  as  an  elaborate  piece  of  geo- 
metrical carving,  ingeniously  arranged  in 
the  semblance  of  a  constructional  work  ; 
its  real  construction  (sound  enough,  intel- 
ligent enough,  or  the  roof  would  not  stand) 
masked  by  the  extraordinary  composition 
in  radiating  lines,  as  if  the  cloister  of 
Gloucester  Cathedral  had  lent  its  roof  to 
be  raised  high  into  the  air,  and  completed 
on  the  side  towards  the  windows  by  the 
continuing  of  each  circular  cone  in  that 
direction.  Plate  XXXVI  gives  the  admir- 
able drawing  made  by  Robert  Willis  of  the 
construction  of  this  vault  and  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  while  the  mechanical  skill  shown 
in  the  work  is  great  and  peculiar,  there  is 
nothing  whatever  left  of  the  system  of 
Gothic  vaulting,  nor  any  dependence  placed 
[122] 


WESTMINSTER  ABBEY,    LONDON.  CHAPEL  OF    HENRY  VII. 
PLATE    XXXV. 


English  Late  Gothic  and  Fan- Vaulting 

upon  the  numerous  radiating  ribs  which 
seem  to  be  the  very  framework  of  the 
structure.  They  are  decorative  mouldings 
worked  upon  the  surface  of  a  solid  stone 
vault,  built  in  a  single  shell  which  extends 
from  one  to  another  of  the  great  transverse 
arches  which  span  the  nave. 

This  design  marks  the  culmination  in 
England  of  that  florid  Gothic  in  which 
early  principles  have  a  subordinate  part, 
while  newly  required  elaboration  and  tricks 
of  deceptive  brilliancy  of  workmanship 
come  to  the  front  and  absorb  the  interest  of 
the  beholder.  No  one  can  remain  indiffer- 
ent to  the  fantastic  and  yet  enduring  charm 
of  such  a  roof.  The  roof  of  Kings  College 
Chapel  has  already  been  mentioned  as  of 
extraordinary  beauty  and  as  forming  with 
the  vertical  members  which  support  it  and 
the  windows  between  them  a  Gothic  in- 
terior as  splendid  as  anything  out  of 
France :  but  its  beauty  is  of  a  style  which 
had  already  lost  its  reason  for  being,  and 
its  appearance  of  constructional  dignity  is 
in  a  way  deceptive.  The  admiration  we 
[123  J 


Late  Mediseval  Design 

bring  to  such  a  monument  is  then  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  we  give  to  the  in- 
teriors of  the  great  Gothic  churches  shown 
in  the  plates  of  Chapter  IV,  or  to  the  many 
other  beautiful  naves  and  choirs  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  in  Eng- 
land, France,  Spain,  and  Germany.  At 
Ely  and  Salisbury,  Bourges  and  Laon, 
Burgos  and  Gerona,  Cologne  and  Vienna, 
the  student  enters  a  great  church,  whose 
vault  was  completed  at  any  time  between 
1200  and  1400,  with  perfect  certainty  that 
the  structure  is  as  sincere  and  obvious  as  it 
is  impressive  ;  nor  does  any  doubt  enter  his 
mind  as  to  the  utility  of  the  members  of 
the  structure  around  him.  It  is  only  with 
the  beginning  of  the  florid  Gothic  that  this 
wholesome  frame  of  mind  can  no  longer  be 
retained. 

Let  us  consider  the  church  of  Brou, 
standing  close  to  the  town  of  Bourg-en- 
Bresse,  in  southern  Burgundy.  It  was  not 
begun  until  about  1510 :  that  is  to  say,  its 
construction  is  contemporaneous  with  the 
earlier  years  of  Henry  VIII  in  England, 
[124] 


CHURCH  OF  SAINT  WULFRAN,   ABBEVILLE  (NORD)    FRANCE.     DETAIL 
OF   WEST   FRONT. 
PLATE     XXXVIII. 


Gothic  Art  Resisting  Italian  Influence 

and  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in 
Spain ;  and,  in  architectural  history,  it  is 
contemporaneous  with  so  much  of  the 
building  of  the  present  St.  Peter's  in  Rome 
as  fixed  the  architectural  style  of  that  great 
church.  Plate  XXXVII  is  a  view  of  the 
church  of  Brou,  looking  westward  to  the 
great  front  whose  large  windows  fill  the  nave 
with  dazzling  daylight  and  make  that  west 
wall  itself  invisible.  The  Gothic  structure 
here  is  complete — as  logical  and  exact  as  in 
the  palmy  days  of  the  thirteenth  century ; 
but  the  decorative  treatment  is  different  in- 
deed !  On  the  right  is  the  tomb  of  the 
Duchess  Margaret  of  Austria,  who  completed 
the  church  and  set  up  her  own  and  her  hus- 
band's tomb  with  those  of  earlier  princes  of 
the  line.  This  tomb  is  a  structure  wholly 
in  keeping  with  the  church,  as  it  was  really 
the  cause  of  its  being.  There  is  nothing 
more  interesting  in  such  work  than  the 
completely  realized  naturalistic  character 
of  the  statuary.  Nowhere  has  the  art  of 
the  sculptor  been  left  so  free  as  in  these 
flamboyant  Gothic  buildings — so  free  to 
[125] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

develop  itself  while  still  it  remains  in  strict 
accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
architectural  design.  The  splendid  church 
of  S.  Wulfran  at  Abbeville,  in  the  far  north 
of  France,  helps  us  to  see  still  more  plainly, 
this  extraordinary  development  of  architec- 
tural sculpture  because  the  scale  is  larger 
and  the  artistic  power  manifested  immeas- 
urably more  fit  to  cope  with  great  under- 
takings. Plate  XXXVIII  giving  part  of  the 
west  portals  of  that  surprising  church  will 
show  how  completely  the  sculptor's  art  has 
changed  since  the  portals  of  Reims  and  of 
Chartres  were  undertaken.  As  for  the 
architectural  treatment  it  is  still' like  that 
of  the  church  of  Brou,  Gothic  with  modi- 
fications. The  hold  which  the  Gothic  sys- 
tem of  vaulting,  and  of  building  to  support 
the  vaults,  had  over  the  French  builders  is 
visible  in  this  return  to  earlier  principles 
as  soon  as  the  dissensions  of  the  country 
allowed. 

The  famous  Town  Halls  of  the  Nether- 
lands   have    preserved    for    us    the    most 
perfect,  because  the  most  unmingled,  traces 
[126] 


TO^V^•HALT.     OF     AUDENARDE      BELGIUM 


PLATE    XXXLX 


CATHEDRAL  AT  ALBI   (TARN),   FRANCIO,   OUTER   GATE  LEADING  TO  SOUTH 

PORCH. 
PLATE    XL. 


Flamboyant  Gothic  in  the  North 

of  flamboyant  Gothic  in  civic  buildings. 
The  latest  of  all  and  the  smallest  one  of 
importance  is  that  at  Audenarde  in  Bel- 
gium, built  between  1525-30.  It  is  repre- 
sented in  Plate  XXXIX,  lending  itself  well 
to  pictorial  reproduction  on  a  small  scale 
because  it  depends  but  little  on  the  sculp- 
tured details.  A  single  Madonna  with  the 
Child,  above  the  loggia  from  which  the 
town  authorities  would  speak  to  the  people 
in  the  days  of  municipal  independence,  is 
the  only  representative  sculpture  of  im- 
portance in  all  this  front,  below  the  cornice. 
The  fantastic  Gothic  tracery  with  conven- 
tional carving  covers  the  blank  wall  spaces 
with  a  continuous  veil  of  slight  and  not 
unpleasant  roughening  ;  and  the  wall  spaces 
are  so  small  that  this  formal  kind  of  orna- 
ment is  not  disagreeable.  Small  statues 
should  have  been  placed  in  the  niches  ;  but 
the  building  does  not  seem  to  suffer  much 
from  their  absence.  We  can  judge  of  it  as 
being  what  it  is,  a  most  simple  and  practical 
City  Hall,  built  with  pointed  arches,  with  a 
steep  roof  adorned  by  tower,  dormer  win- 
[127] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

dow  and  pinnacle,  and  the  whole  structure 
covered  by  this  thin  veil  of  moulded,  cusped 
and  traceried  ornament,  chiefly  because  the 
church  architecture  of  previous  years  had 
led  up  to  that  kind  of  design  by  natural 
evolution,  and  because  the  spirit  of  the  time 
knew  of  but  one  architectural  treatment. 
Therefore,  without  vaulting,  with  five 
stories  of  rooms  replacing  the  great  hall 
of  the  church,  with  windows  made  to 
open  and  shut  for  the  convenience  of 
the  inhabitants  of  small  rooms,  the  build- 
ing is  yet  closely  in  agreement  with 
the  church  building  of  the  time,  and  is 
to  be  judged  as  a  part  of  the  great  and 
long  supreme  style  out  of  which  it  has 
grown. 

In  the  famous  south  porch  of  the  cathe- 
dral at  Albi,  this  florid  Gothic  has  reached 
its  culmination.  Plate  XL  shows  the  outer 
porch  ;  that  which,  when  the  cathedral  was 
really  a  fortress  of  some  importance, 
guarded  the  first  approach  to  the  long 
flight  of  stairs,  the  outer  perron.  Nothing 
is  more  attractive  among  the  minor  charms 
[128] 


CATHEDRAL    OF    ALBI    (TARN).    FRANCE.     SOUTH    PORCH. 
PLATE     XLI. 


PLATE  XLn. 


LOGGIA  DEI  LANZI.  FLORENCE,  TUSCAN'S. 


Florid  Gothic  in  the  South 

of  spirited  old  architecture  than  these  mix- 
tures of  florid  and  even  fantastical  design 
with  the  grave  solemnity  of  fortress  towers 
and  the  harsh  line  of  battlements  intended 
for  the  service  of  war.  Passing  through 
this  gateway  which  is  pierced  in  a  fortress- 
wall  merely  and  leads  directly  to  no  covered 
apartment  of  any  sort,  the  visitor  mounts 
some  twenty-five  stone  steps  and  reaches 
the  porch  shown  in  Plate  XLI,  but  he  does 
not  enter  it  by  the  larger  archway  ;  that  is 
the  south  archway  to  which  there  is  meant 
to  be  access  on  the  level  of  its  own  sill.  On 
the  right  and  partly  hidden  by  the  huge 
buttress-pier  is  the  narrower  eastern  door- 
way, to  which  access  by  the  steps  is  had, 
from  the  outer  porch,  Plate  XL.  The  great 
inner  porch  (Plate  XLI)  dates  from  the 
earliest  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
is  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  as  it  is 
one  of  the  very  latest  productions  of  that 
strange  art  which  has  abandoned  the  es- 
sential character  and  basis  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture without  losing  its  derived  and  sec- 
ondary charm,  which  may  be  defined  as 
[129] 


Late  Mediaeval  Design 

the  charm  of  picturesque  variety  and 
sharp  contrast — the  very  reverse,  or  so  it 
seems,  of  the  calm  harmony  of  Greek  de- 
sign. 


[180  J 


CHAPTER  VI 

REVIVED   CLASSIC    DESIGN 

About  the  year  1420  a.  d.  there  was  a 
great  change  in  the  architectural  outlook 
in  central  Italy.  The  Risorgimento  ^  was 
already  in  full  vigor,  and  this  had  to  do 
especially  with  the  study  of  the  literature 
of  classical  antiquity  which  had  been 
going  on  for  nearly  a  century.  Latin 
authors  were  studied  afresh,  and,  for  the 
first  time  in  Europe  Greek  authors  were 
inquired  for  and  discussed,  though  the 
time  had  not  yet  come  for  the  serious  study 
of  the  language.  There  was  also  a  very 
marked  change  in  the  feelings,  the  aspira- 
tions, and  the  power  of  painters  and 
sculptors.  Giotto  had  done  his  work  and 
had  been  dead  nearly  a  century,  and 
Simone  Martini  as  long :  Niccold  Pisano 
had  been  dead  so  long  that  his  influence 

*  Eisorgimento:    See  note,  p.  46. 
[131] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

was  felt  chiefly  in  the  work  of  his  son 
Giovanni  who  also  had  died  a  century  be- 
fore our  present  enquiry  begins  :  Orcagna, 
architect  as  well  as  painter  and  sculptor, 
had  opposed  in  the  spirit  of  Italian  tradi- 
tion the  influence  of  the  Northern  school 
of  Gothic  art,  and  had  left  behind  him 
when  he  died,  about  1380,  the  admirable 
portico  in  Florence  known  as  that  of  the 
Lancers.  (See  Plate  XLII.)  Each  of  these 
men  had  done  what  he  could  to  lead  the 
direction  of  artists'  thought  away  from  the 
non-national  Gothic  style.  As  sculptor 
and  as  painter,  each  of  these  artists  had 
much  to  aid  him  in  the  ruins  of  antiquity. 
Had  there  been  only  the  sarcophagi  and 
other  portable  relief-sculptures  they  would 
have  had  material  enough  to  begin  their 
work  in  the  direction  of  a  higher  realism, 
a  more  perfect  study  of  the  human  body,  a 
more  refined  casting  of  drapery,  a  more 
severe  style  of  composition,  than  previous 
centuries  had  allowed.  The  classical  feel- 
ing had  taken  possession  of  the  painters 
and  the  sculptors:  Paolo  UcceUi,  Castagno, 

ri32] 


The  Earliest  Revived  Classical  Style 

Gentile,  Masolino,  and  most  of  all  the 
great  Masaccio,  were  at  work  :  and  as  for 
sculpture,  Lorenzo  Ghiberti  was  forty  years 
old  and  Donatello  thirty-four,  and  the 
modern  arts  of  form  had  taken  shape. 
The  sculptors  and  the  painters  had  been 
encouraged  in  their  ambitions  by  the  works 
of  Greco- Roman  art  about  them :  but 
monuments  of  ancient  architecture  were 
so  much  defaced,  even  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  that  it  required  a  ver}^  different 
lesson  before  their  significance  could  be 
learned,  and  this  lesson,  this  strong  teach- 
ing, was  to  be  given  through  scholarship 
rather  than  through  the  observation  of  the 
artist.  It  was  not  until  ancient  literature 
had  been  well  studied  for  half  a  century 
that  an  enthusiastic  young  builder,  Filippo 
Brunellesco,  undertook  to  study  the  Roman 
ways  of  vaulting  and  went  for  that  purpose 
to  Rome  as  the  place  where  the  greater 
number  of  important  classical  buildings 
remained,  or  perhaps  as  the  place  where 
stood  the  always  famous  Pantheon.  (See 
Chapter  II.)  It  was  1430  before  the  fii-st 
[133] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

building  was  begun  in  which  an  attempt 
was  made  to  use  the  classical  orders  in 
wholly  new  work.  This  was  the  Chapel  of 
the  Pazzi,  attached  to  the  church  of  Santa 
Croce,  in  Florence,  and  the  exterior  of  this 
is  shown  in  Plate  XLIII  as  far  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  obtain  an  intelligible  photograph  of 
its  more  important  parts.  It  is  a  small 
thing ;  but  assuredly  it  is  marvellous  to  see, 
because  of  the  boldness  required  on  the 
part  of  its  designer.  If  we  try  to  imagine 
the  habit  of  mind  of  a  man  who  had  never 
seen  anything  built  in  Greco-Roman  orders 
in  any  form,  or  designed  in  the  Greco-Ro- 
man spirit,  who  knew  buildings  of  classical 
design  only  as  fragmentary  ruins  and  who 
himself  had  carried  out  many  designs  of 
his  own  in  a  spirit,  not  Gothic  indeed,  but 
assuredly  not  classic,  and  who  then,  at  the 
age  of  fifty-five,  in  a  time  when  life  was 
shorter  and  began  earlier  than  now,  under- 
took and  carried  out  such  a  composition  as 
this,  there  will  indeed  seem  cause  for  sur- 
prised admiration.  There  is  a  modern 
Italian  feeling  in  the  little  rondels  which 
[134] 


PALAZZO    RUC'ELLAl,    FLOREN'CE.    TLtsCANY. 


PLATE    XLIV. 


The  Earliest  Revised  Classical  Style 

adorn  the  frieze  above  the  columns :  but 
these  rondels  are  filled  with  cherubs  and 
the  whole  composition  may  be  set  down  to 
the  Christian  ecclesiastic  feeling.  Again 
the  fifteenth  century  spirit  is  seen  in  the 
sculpture  of  the  central  arch,  both  on  the 
archivolt  ^  and  the  intrados  :  ^  but  he  had 
no  antique  example  of  a  decorated  arch  and 
as  an  artist  he  felt  the  need  of  one.  There 
is  a  mistaken  use  of  ancient  forms  in  the 
carved  flutings  of  the  uppermost  frieze, 
the  strigil  ornament  taken  from  some 
sarcophagus ;  but  this  also  may  be  con- 
doned in  view  of  the  fact  that  sculptor  as 
he  was  he  dared  not  undertake  architec- 
tural carving  of  would-be  classical  intent. 
The  coupled  pilasters  of  the  upper  story 
are  hardly  classic  ;  in  fact  the  pilaster  in 
any  form  is  a  rarity  in  external  architec- 
ture, so  far  as  we  know  the  buildings  of 
Imperial  Rome ;  and  this  feature  was 
destined  to  be  altogether  characteristic  of 

'  Archivolt :  the  outer  vertical  face  of  au  arch  ;  and,  where 
there  are  several  concentric  arches,  the  general  outer  face  of  the 
whole  group  ;  that  face  which  seems  to  form  part  of  the  wall  in 
which  the  arch  is  built 

'  Intrados :  The  under  or  concave  face  of  the  solid  structure  of 
an  arch. 

[135] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

the  Neo-classic  architecture :  but  in  fii*9t 
introducing  it  here,  Filippo  must  have 
seemed  to  himself  to  be  doing  only  what  a 
Roman  designer  of  the  second  century 
would  have  done  had  he  undertaken  so 
small  and  so  refined  a  design.  We  are  not 
to  forget  that  it  was  huge  monuments,  the 
Pantheon  and  the  Colosseum  and  the 
basilica  of  Constantine,  which  the  Italian 
masters  had  to  study  when  there  was 
question  of  general  dispositions.  They 
had  indeed  something  which  we  have  not 
in  the  as  yet  unspoiled  interiors  of  certain 
structures  on  the  Palatine  Hill  and  near 
the  Forum  :  but  they  can  hardly  have  had 
many  examples  of  design  on  a  small  scale 
— of  the  best  architectural  treatment  ap- 
plied to  buildings  of  very  small  size.  This 
portico  cannot  exceed  thirty-five  feet  in 
total  height  and  its  length  is  not  much 
greater :  there  cannot  have  been  many 
jewels  of  refinement  like  that  left  among 
the  ancient  ruins  of  Italy,  even  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

So  far,  the  revival  in   architecture   was 
[136] 


Neo-Classic  Art  Has  an  Original  Side 

conducted  along  lines  of  common  sense,  and 
when  the  scholar  and  humanist,  Leo  Battista 
Alberti,  came  to  the  front  as  an  independ- 
ent designer  of  architectural  compositions 
and  created  the  front  of  the  Rucellai 
Palace,  (Plate  XLIV)  which  was  begun  in 
1451,  he  added  the  flat  pilaster  of  slight  relief 
to  a  well-known  type  of  house  front.  The 
curious  thing  about  this  introduction  of 
the  pilasters  is  that  no  sooner  was  it  seen 
than  it  was  disliked,  at  least  in  the  front  of 
the  palazzo,  with  its  round-arched  window- 
heads.  The  Palazzo  Pitti  had  been  begun 
by  Brunellesco  himself  and  without  any 
pilasters  at  all ;  then  came  his  rival's 
Rucellai  front,  and  thirty  years  later  we 
are  back  again  at  the  old  standpoint,  and 
the  Strozzi  Palace  (see  Plate  XLV)  and  the 
Medici  Palace  (afterwards  Riccardi)  are 
buildings  without  these  seemingly  inap- 
propriate additions.  It  is  surprising  to  see 
how  much  common  sense  there  was  among 
these  early  lovers  of  the  antique  grandeur. 
The  use  of  the  northern  style,  the  pointed 
Gothic,  with  its  ribbed  vault  and  its  pictur- 
[137] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

esque  treatment,  ceased  altogether  in  Italy 
with  the  first  examples  of  revived  classical 
architecture :  but  not  on  that  account  did 
the  ancient  Roman  way  of  building  come 
into  favor,  nor  did  the  Roman  methods  of 
design  succeed  without  a  struggle.  Plate 
XLVI  shows  the  courtyard  of  the  Cancel- 
laria  in  Rome,  which  can  hardly  have  been 
built  before  1475 ;  and  contemporaneous 
with  this  are  many  exquisite  porticoes  of 
similar  design,  porticoes  in  which  the 
vaulting  springs  from  the  capitals  of  the 
columns ;  and  the  outer  ordonnance — the 
seemly  ordering  of  parts  which  had  become 
to  the  Italians  of  the  fifteenth  century  as 
important,  relatively,  as  it  had  been  to  their 
ancestors  eleven  centuries  before,  very  un- 
like the  ordonnance  of  those  ancestors. 
Only  on  the  rarest  occasions  did  the  Ro- 
man architects  of  the  classic  period  build  in 
this  way,  with  the  arches  springing  from 
the  capitals  directly.  The  complete  Roman 
Order  is  indeed  seen  side  by  side  with  this 
modern  type.  Plate  XLVIII  shows  the  in- 
terior court  of  the  Palazzo  di  Venezia  in 
[138] 


PALAZZO     DELLA     C  AN(  i.J.LAHIA,     }{OMK.     COLKTYAKD. 
PLATE     XLVL 


The  Roman  Order  in  Neo-Classic  Art 

Rome,  the  date  of  which  is  always  given  as 
1460,  and  here  is  the  Roman  Order  indeed  I 
Here  is  the  complete  reproduction  of  that 
most  singular  system  of  design  according  to 
which  the  engaged  column,  known  to  be  a 
mere  ornament  or  with  a  constructional 
utility  limited  to  this  slight  thickening  of 
the  pier  at  that  point,  is  made  to  look  like 
the  chief  supporting  member ;  while  the 
arch  which  really  does  the  work  is  treated 
as  a  subordinate  filling  of  the  panel  be- 
tween. This  curious  device,  invented  when 
the  Romans  of  the  Empire  wished  to  build 
freely  and  yet  to  design  as  the  Greeks  de- 
signed, brought  up  again  by  their  imitators 
in  the  fifteenth  century  and  never  aban- 
doned since,  has  so  passed  into  our  modern 
life  that  we  neither  know  nor  see  its  incon- 
sistency. A  designer  who  might  have  a 
strong  sense  for  the  constructional  in  his 
work  would  find  it  impossible  to  reproduce 
this  motive :  on  the  other  hand,  those 
many  designers  who  are  sincerely  enamored 
of  the  traditions  of  the  schools  accept  it  as 
one  of  the  necessary  features  of  great  and 
[139] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

dignified  classical  architecture.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  compare  with  the  examples  just  given 
that  shown  in  Plate  XLVII,  in  which  the 
ground  story  arcade  is  classical  Roman, 
except  that  a  very  shallow  pilaster  is  sub- 
stituted for  the  engaged  column  and  in  this 
way  becomes  a  confessed  ornament,  while 
there  is  no  definite  archivolt  furnished  the 
arches  between,  so  that  the  pilaster  remains 
the  single  decoration  of  this  story ;  while 
above,  the  most  realistic  method  possible 
has  been  followed.  Except  for  that  odd 
little  doubling  of  the  consoles  above  the 
larger  piers,  this  upper  story  is  as  logical 
and  obvious  as  if  it  had  been  built  in 
France  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
lintel-course,  resting  alternately  upon  these 
larger  piers  with  their  pilaster-like  treat- 
ment, and  upon  the  small  and  slender  col- 
umns of  completely  Renaissance  design, 
carries  in  its  turn  the  roof  timbers  and  the 
gutter  in  front  of  them,  and  that  is  all. 
There  is  absolutely  no  pretense  about  it ; 
no  affectation  of  being  that  which  it  is  not ; 
and  the  combination  of  the  two  stories  has 
[140] 


CHURCH    OF   SANTA    MARIA    DELLA    PACE,    ROME.    CLOISTER. 
PLATE    XLVIL 


PALAZZO    DI    VENKZIA,    ROME.      COURTYARD. 


PLATE     XLVIIL 


Non-Classical  Details;  Coupled  Columns 

resulted  in  one  of  the  loveliest  pieces  of 
composition  in  Italy.  The  date  of  this 
charming  design,  the  cloister  of  S.  Maria 
delle  Pace,  may  be  set  as  the  first  decade  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  Fashions  change 
even  in  neo-classic  architecture,  and  when 
the  Palazzo  Borghese  was  under  considera- 
tion in  the  last  years  of  that  same  great 
century,  the  coupled  column  was  in  use  as 
a  favorite  device.  Long  afterwards  it  ap- 
peared in  Paris,  adorning  the  famous  east- 
ern front  of  the  Louvre;  but  here,  as  early 
as  the  days  when  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her 
nobles  were  resisting  the  Spanish  Armada, 
the  coupling  of  the  columns,  almost  un- 
known in  antiquity,  and  never  a  device  of 
the  Rinascimento,  finds  itself  in  complete 
favor  in  that  which  we  call  the  Classic- 
ismo.^  Indeed  this  portico  and  loggia, 
Plate  XLIX,  has  little  real  classical  feeling 
about  it,  except  the  care  with  which  the 
simpler  Order,  Tuscan  or  modified  Doric,  is 
kept  in  the  ground  story,  and  the  Ionic 


*  Classicismo :  The  epoch  of  close  study  of  antiquity,  1520  to 
«570- 

[  141  ] 


Revived  Classic  Design 

Order  above — the  proportions  of  those  col- 
urans  being  also  carefully  observed.  The 
reader  will  hardly  ignore  the  coldness  of 
the  design,  the  absence  of  flavor  and  fresh- 
ness which  marks  it :  the  designer  is  so 
very  sure  of  his  methods  and  so  fixed  in 
advance  as  to  his  intentions  that  there  is 
no  longer  any  trace  of  the  Rebirth  left.  If 
we  cross  the  Alps,  we  shall  find  in  build- 
ings of  this  time  the  Renaissance  in  its  full 
glory,  but  the  Renaissance  in  France  is 
nearly  a  century  behind  the  Rinascimento 
in  Italy. 


L  142  1 


CHAPTER  VII 

LATER   REVIVED   CLASSIC    DESIGN 

In  this  chapter  we  must  consider  an 
epoch  of  transition  for  northern  Europe. 
Chapter  VI  dealt  with  the  time  of  change 
in  Italy ;  but  there  was  only  a  brief  era  of 
transition  there,  so  rapid  and  direct  was  the 
change.  The  Italians  were  ready  to  accept 
an  imitation  of  classical  architecture,  in  the 
hope  that  the  real  classical  architecture 
would  follow.  No  matter  how  poor  the 
imitation,  how  inadequate  the  study  had 
been,  to  the  Italians  it  was  so  natural  that 
architects  should  study  that  which  they, 
the  Italians,  had  always  considered  the  best 
architecture,  that  they  were  willing  to  for- 
give mistakes.  In  the  North  things  were 
as  different  as  possible.  The  mighty  Gothic 
school  was  as  vigorous  and  full  of  energy  as 
it  had  been  at  any  time  since  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  that  is  to  say,  since 
[143] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

the  day  of  its  first  brilliant  culmination  : 
and  every  one,  every  mason,  every  carpenter, 
every  bishop  or  abbot,  every  noble  or  great 
officer,  knew  what  a  building  or  a  detail 
ought  to  be  without  asking  the  opinion  of 
any  student  of  the  Roman  past.  The 
North,  generally,  was  as  reluctant  to  admit 
the  importance  of  any  such  studies  as  the 
South  was  ready  to  insist  upon  them.  So 
it  was  that  only  the  bodily  transportation  of 
the  court  for  many  months  from  France  to 
central  Italy,  and  this  at  a  time  when  the 
Risorgimento  in  architecture  was  at  its 
most  glorious  height,  could  suffice  to  turn 
the  nobles  of  the  court  to  care  for  the  stately 
methods  of  design  introduced  by  the  modern 
students  of  antiquity.  It  was  in  1494  that 
Charles  VIII  started  for  Rome :  for  five 
years  from  that  time  the  nobles  of  his  court 
saw  much  more  of  Italy  than  they  did  of 
their  own  country.  They  came  back  little 
by  little,  after  the  accession  of  Louis  XII, 
full  of  the  glories  that  they  had  seen.  To 
them  it  was  evident  that  the  Italian  palace 
with  its  grandiose  staircase,  its  stately 
[144] 


The  Renaissance  in  the  North 

ordonnance  of  windows  on  the  front,  its 
dignity,  its  rather  cold  reserve,  was  more 
worthy  of  a  prince  than  the  more  homely 
and  natural  buildings  they  had  left  behind 
them  in  France — buildings  which  were  of 
the  same  style  and  spirit  as  the  village 
churches,  and  of  the  houses  even  of  the  less 
wealthy  citizens. 

And  yet  there  is  a  living  proof  of  the 
difficulty  which  even  at  this  late  date  the 
classical  styles  had  to  establish  themselves 
in  France.  Plate  L  shows  that  wing  of  the 
chateau  at  Blois  which  was  built  about 
1500  and  which  is  called  the  wing  of 
Louis  XII.  Plate  LI  shows  the  adjoining 
stretch  of  building,  that  which  was  built 
about  1525  and  which  is  known  by  the 
name  of  Francois  I.  In  the  earlier  wing 
shown  in  Plate  L,  although  the  Italian  war 
had  been  going  on  for  years  before  a  stone 
of  it  was  laid  or  cut,  there  are  no  signs  of 
any  study  whatever  of  classical  details. 
The  building  is  what  it  would  have  been 
had  there  been  no  invasion  of  Italy  by  the 
preceding  king — had  no  French  nobleman 
[145] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

dreamed  of  bringing  home  Italian  workmen 
and  Italian  ideas.  The  pointed  arch  is 
pushed  to  one  side  and  replaced  by  the 
three-centred  arch  and  by  the  lintel,  but 
altogether  from  reasons  of  convenience,  and 
without  the  slightest  thought  of  pleasing 
thereby  the  students  of  antiquity.  The 
high  and  steeply  pitched  roof  remains,  the 
simple  and  obvious  fenestration  with  open- 
ings put  where  they  are  needed,  and  only  a 
secondary  reference  to  delicacies  of  propor- 
tion ;  the  uneven  lengths  of  the  quoins  and 
chaines^  of  the  window  jambs,  the  traceried 
parapet  and  sunken  panels,  and  even  the 
foliated  sculpture,  all  is  of  the  middle  ages  ; 
nor  is  there  anywhere  a  pilaster,  a  clas- 
sical column,  or  th9  suggestion  of  an  en- 
tablature. 

So  in  the  building  of  the  next  reign,  that 
of  Francis  I,  shown  in  part  in  Plate  LI,  the 
progress  of  study  towards  antiquity  is  visi- 


'  Chafne  :  lu  Freuch,  a  system  nsnally  vertical  of  larger  and 
more  perfectly  dressed  stoues  in  a  wall  of  lighter  or  rougher 
material.  Thns  the  qnoins  at  the  comer  of  a  building  and  the 
Alternately  long  and  short  stones  at  a  window  opening  or  door 
opening  are  chaines,  but  the  same  device  may  be  osed  to  stiflen 
a  long  and  unbroken  wall. 

[146] 


The  Renaissance  in  the  North 

ble.  Here  there  are  pilasters  but  such  as  a 
Roman  of  the  empire  would  have  thought 
very  odd  ones,  and,  in  a  way,  there  is  an 
entablature  between  the  second  and  third 
row  of  windows ;  and  so  the  capitals  have 
a  little  touch  of  the  Ionic  style,  at  least  in 
the  flat  wall  to  the  right  of  the  great  stair- 
case. But  in  every  respect,  in  the  high 
roof,  the  huge  and  richly  ornamented 
chimneys,  the  free  treatment  of  the  fenes- 
tration, the  still  more  free  and  easy  han- 
dling of  the  staircase,  with  its  ramps  and 
openings  treated  with  an  obvious  eye  to 
spirited  effect,  and  with  but  little  care  for 
classical  gravity  of  proportion,  all  is  still 
mediaeval.  The  reader  will  understand 
that  the  arches  on  the  left  of  the  staircase, 
with  Roman  engaged  columns  between 
them  and  the  entablature  which  they 
carry,  were  an  addition  of  the  time  of 
Gaston  of  Orleans,  about  1640 :  all  this  has 
been  swept  away  by  the  restoration  under 
Duban  :  for  the  object  of  that  restoration 
was  mainly  the  putting  of  these  two  great 
divisions  of  the  palace  into  the  state  they 
[147] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

were  in  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  for  in- 
stance, when  the  States  General  were  held 
in  one  of  its  great  halls,  namely,  the  one  of 
which  a  small  part  is  seen  on  the  left  in 
Plate  L. 

The  student,  as  he  approaches  either  of 
these  interesting  buildings,  has  to  remem- 
ber that  the  style  of  the  earlier  one,  Plate 
L,  was  compelled  to  make  room  for  the 
newer  style,  as  that  in  its  turn  was  soon 
out  of  fashion  and  was  replaced  by  the 
more  severely  classical  buildings  which  are 
mentioned  below.  The  evolution  was  not 
perfect,  the  growth  was  not  merely  natural 
and  inevitable,  the  style  did  not  ripen, 
gi'owing  slowly  from  point  to  point  of  de- 
velopment, from  simpler  to  richer,  from  less 
to  greater  pitch  of  complication.  It  was 
the  constant  influx  of  fresh  appeals  from 
Italy  and  from  Italianized  travellers,  some- 
times nobles  of  the  great  court,  like  the 
Constable  of  Montmorency,  sometimes 
princes  of  the  church,  like  the  two  car- 
dinals of  Amboise,  and  sometimes  scholars 
only,  humble  students  of  Greek  and  Latin, 
[148] 


CHATEAU   AT   BLOIS   (LOIR    ET  CHER).    FRANCE.   WING    OF   FRANCOIS    I 

FRANCE. 
PLATE     LI. 


CHATEAU    OF    ECOUEN    (SEINE    FT    OISE),    FRANCE,    COURTYARD. 


PLATE    LII. 


WOLLATON     ilALI.,     NOTTS,     ENGLAND. 


Development  of  the  Renaissance 

like  Rabelais  and  La  Bo^tie.  The  next 
step  was  taken  by  that  very  Constable  of 
Montmorency,  who,  being  then  at  the 
height  of  his  wealth  and  influence  in  the 
State,  began  the  new  chateau  of  Ecouen, 
after  1540 — an  early  date,  but  the  work 
was  put  into  the  hands  of  an  uncompro- 
mising classicist,  Jean  Bullant.  Plate  LII 
shows  a  part  of  this  chateau,  the  flank  on 
the  right  hand  as  one  enters  the  great  court 
by  the  chief  gateway.  Here  the  classical 
orders  are  more  at  home,  and  although  the 
high  roof,  the  monumental  chimneys,  and 
the  huge  and  towering  dormers  are  still  of 
the  French  Renaissance  proper,  with  but 
little  direct  Italianate  influence,  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  everywhere  in  the  mouldings, 
in  the  larger  details,  the  classical  feeling  of 
the  architect  has  had  its  way.  Even  his 
dormer  windows,  picturesque,  and,  in  a 
way,  mediaeval  as  they  are  in  design,  have 
pilasters  and  a  Doric  frieze,  all  approxi- 
mated in  their  proportion  to  the  classical 
standard.  As  for  the  main  wall,  it  only 
needs  a  glance  at  the  portico  of  columns  in 
[149] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

the  middle  of  it,  to  see  how  the  proportions 
of  those  two  orders  have  swayed  the  design 
from  end  to  end.  This  front,  except  the 
two  dormers  in  the  middle,  which  are 
later,  is  very  nearly  of  the  same  date  as 
that  building  which  is  shown  in  Plate  LI. 
But  the  transition  to  neo-classic  art  is  much 
farther  advanced.  The  student  will  see  in 
these  disciplined  details,  this  systematic 
spacing  and  shaping,  the  beginning  of  that 
tranquil  and  rather  slow  evolution  which 
is  seen  again  in  Chapter  VIII. 

The  generally  chronological  view  which 
we  are  taking  of  all  these  changing  styles, 
is  a  good  help  to  memory,  and  through  this, 
to  swift  and  almost  instinctive  comparison. 
It  helps  the  student  also  in  his  search  for 
causes.  In  this  way  it  becomes  curious  to 
note  what  the  English  were  doing  at  the 
time  that  the  classical  Renaissance  was  thus 
safely  begun  in  France ;  with  Spain  in  the 
lead,  Flanders  (influenced  by  Spain)  along- 
side, Germany  only  a  little  behind.  The 
English  were  building  the  Tudor  and  Eliza- 
bethan country  houses.  Those  built  of  tim- 
[160] 


Tudor  and  Elizabethan  Dwellings 

ber  with  filling  of  masonry  between  the 
timbers  belong  to  an  old  system  of  construc- 
tion once  as  common  in  the  northwestern 
parts  of  the  Continent  as  in  England  :  but 
those  of  more  pretension  have  generally 
some  slight  invasion  of  forms  derived  from 
Italy  mingled  with  the  Tudor  or  semi- 
Gothic  design.  Thus  Wollaton  Hall,  of 
which  the  principal  front  is  shown  in  Plate 
LII,  dates  from  a  time  later  than  Ecouen, 
but  it  is  a  long  way  from  the  classic  feeling 
shown  in  that  stately  edifice.  We  are  not 
to  compare  it  with  any  classical  standard ; 
we  have  to  consider  it  abstractly,  to  note  its 
merits  as  an  exterior,  expressing  the  use  of 
the  building  and  its  character  as  a  residence, 
and  a  certain  abstract  charm,  as  of  propriety, 
which  invests  it.  The  huge  windows  are  a 
mark  of  the  time ;  they  express  the  joy 
which  all  the  more  intelligent  classes  were 
feeling  at  the  new  cheapness  and  accessibility 
of  glass :  and  it  is  noticeable  how  well  the 
difficulty  is  met,  how  much  more  useful  are 
the  pilasters  here  than  when  we  found  them 
in  Florence.  (See  Chapter  VI.)  The  great 
[151] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

building  is  not  left  a  mere  lantern :  the 
opening  up  of  the  walls  is  almost  as  success- 
ful as  we  found  it  in  the  Gothic  churches. 
(See  Chapter  IV.) 

As  noted  above,  the  English  cared  less  for 
vaulted  roofs  than  did  the  people  of  the 
Continent.  They  developed  a  splendid  sys- 
tem of  decorative  timbered  construction,  of 
which  the  finest  mediaeval  example  is  the 
roof  of  Westminster  Hall.  Nearly  two  hun- 
dred years  later  than  that  splendid  roof  is 
the  almost  equally  fine  piece  of  timber  work 
which  covers  Middle-Temple  Hall,  Plate 
LIII.  This  Hall  shows  us  also  the  finest  pos- 
sible screen  of  Jacobean  architecture.  These 
screens  were  used  when  the  plans  of  build- 
ings were  simple,  when  the  great  Hall  of  a 
country-house  or  a  college  or  the  building 
of  a  company  of  merchants  filled  the  whole 
of  the  pavilion  devoted  to  it,  occupying  all 
the  space  under  its  roof  and  within  its  four 
walls.  To  make  a  vestibule  of  entrance  for 
protection  against  the  cold  and  against  un- 
due publicity,  the  screens  were  built  athwart 
one  end  of  the  interior  space :  and  their 
[152] 


HALL     OF     MIDDLE    TEMPLE,     LONDON. 


PLATE    LIII. 


CHURCH   OF   THE   THEATINER   MONKS  AT  MUNICH,   BAVARIA. 


DLCAL    PALACE.    GJCNOA.    ITALY. 


PI,ATE     LTV 


The  Hall  in  Private  and  Civic  Buildings 

upper  stories  formed  galleries  of  communi- 
cation between  the  smaller  buildings  to  left 
and  right.  We  are  to  consider  this  room 
then  as  the  meeting-room  and  dining-room 
of  a  great  number  of  companions  and  as- 
sociates whose  semi-privacy  would  not  be 
invaded  too  seriously  by  the  coming  and 
going  behind  the  screen.  So  much  for  the 
fitness  of  the  building  for  its  purposes :  as 
to  other  considerations,  the  vigor  of  design, 
both  in  constructive  and  purely  decorative 
members,  hardly  needs  demonstration. 

In  Italy,  the  changes  between  1550  and 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  are  to 
be  found  generally  in  the  way  of  increasing 
formality  and  a  declining  sense  of  the  beau- 
tiful and  the  fit.  And  yet  throughout  this 
decline,  there  is  seen  the  Italian  feeling  for 
composition.  The  Italians,  though  never 
a  great  building  people — never  originators 
in  building — have  always,  since  antiquity, 
known  how  to  make  fine  designs — how  to 
work  with  but  little  detail,  how  to  handle 
that  little  with  good  effect,  how  to  avoid 
solecism. 

[153] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

In  this  connection  it  will  be  well  to  study 
the  Frontispiece.  The  great  church  of  San 
Pietro  in  Vaticano  was  begun  very  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  to  replace  a  very 
early  basilica.  Bramante  (Donato  d'Ag- 
nolo :  called  also  Donato  Lazzari ;  d.l514) 
one  of  the  most  renowned  of  architects, 
made  designs  for  it.  He  worked  out  the 
plan  again  and  again  in  many  forms ;  and 
achieved  so  much  actual  success  that  the 
great  piers  intended  to  carry  the  cupola 
and  the  pendentives  above  them  were 
nearly  completed,  and  the  principal  apse 
— that  of  the  western  end  (for  in  this 
church  the  orientation  is  reversed) — was 
vaulted  during  his  lifetime.  After  that 
time  there  were  seemingly  endless  de- 
lays, unceasing  controversy,  never-ending 
changes ;  but  the  model  of  the  cupola  was 
completed  by  Michelangelo  Buonarroti,  and 
the  cupola  itself  carried  up  as  far  as  the  top 
of  the  great  drum  below  the  rounded  shell 
before  the  death  of  that  great  artist  in  1564. 
Michelangelo,  then,  must  have  seen  the 
church,  in  his  imagination,  almost  exactly 
[154] 


Italian  Design  Seen  in  a  Great  Example 

as  it  is  shown  in  the  Frontispiece.  To  any 
one  who  approaches  the  church  from  the 
city,  crossing  the  bridge  of  Sant'  Angelo 
and  walking  up  the  Borgo  to  the  Piazza 
San  Pietro,  the  aspect  of  the  building  is  al- 
together different ;  for  the  late  additions, 
the  unfortunate  entrance-front,  and  the  still 
more  unfortunate  long  nave,  mar  the  effect ; 
the  first  by  its  absolute  inferiority  as  a 
design,  the  second  by  its  concealment  of 
the  cupola  which,  on  that  side,  can  only  be 
seen  when  you  are  at  least  a  mile  and  a  half 
distant  and  halfway  up  the  slopes  of  the 
Pincian  Hill. 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  insert  this 
little  bit  of  history,  because  such  considera- 
tions of  chance  and  change  or  such  balanc- 
ing of  the  qualities  of  different  succeeding 
designs  and  their  makers  are  inevitably 
part  of  every  great  and  costly  building ; 
such  a  building  as  strains  the  resources  of  a 
nation  or  a  church — such  as  takes,  and 
must  take,  years  in  its  completion.  St. 
Peter's  cannot  be  judged  in  a  morning  nor 
qualified  in  a  paragraph.  There  is  in  it 
[  155  ] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

the  work  of  the  masters  of  the  Risorgimento 
in  its  very  highest  flight,  and  there  is,  more 
visible,  the  work  of  the  artists  of  the  Deca- 
denza — of  the  better  and  the  worse  men,  of 
the  greater  and  the  more  ignoble  epochs. 
A  building  so  vast  and  of  such  prodigious 
variety  can  only  be  judged  as  a  landscape 
might  be  judged ;  its  details  taking  shape 
only  after  hours  of  patient  looking,  and  that 
with  a  practiced  eye. 

It  will  generally  be  admitted  that  the 
church  as  seen  in  the  Frontispiece  is  far 
more  attractive  than  it  is  when  seen  from 
the  East ;  also  that  the  great  Order  of 
pilasters,  112  feet  high,  resting  upon  a  base- 
ment of  eighteen  feet,  is  too  colossal  even 
for  the  "  colossal  Order  " — the  separate  pi- 
lasters showing  too  much  like  towers  of 
masonry  and  requiring  a  different  architec- 
tural treatment  from  that  which  they  re- 
ceived as  mere  subordinate  details ;  that 
the  design  suffers  from  the  absence  of  the 
complete  group  of  minor  cupolas,  of  which 
only  two  out  of  the  four  have  been  erected  ; 
that  the  great  attic  is  too  heavy  even  for 
[156] 


Critical  Examination  of  Such  an  Example 

the  lower  architectural  story  made  up  of 
the  colossal  order,  and  this  very  largely 
because  of  the  dwarfing  of  that  lower  archi- 
tectural story  by  the  windows  of  the  actual 
stories  within  giving  the  lie  to  the  chief 
ordonnance,  and  cutting  up  that  vast  and 
mountainous  exterior.  All  this  will  be 
granted  generally  by  most  students  of 
European  architecture  as  a  whole  rather 
than  of  one  school  or  one  epoch  ;  and  those 
students  will  also  be  of  one  mind  as  to  the 
dignity  of  the  whole  group  and  as  to  the 
beauty  of  the  cupola,  drum  and  shell  to- 
gether, effective  without  and  extremely 
beautiful  when  seen  from  within.  Those 
who  regard  with  an  especial  love  the  deli- 
cate architectural  sculpture  of  the  fifteenth 
century  will  find  the  huge  church  hard  and 
cold.  Those  who  care  for  reason  and  for 
intelligent  growth  of  design  out  of  building 
will  care  for  it,  while  admitting  its  lack  of 
charm,  for  it  is  of  thoroughgoing  masonry 
throughout,  and  what  it  appears  outwardly 
to  be  that  it  really  is.  As  we  get  to  know  it 
we  find  that  the  colossal  order  and  the  rest 
[157] 


Later  Revived  Classic  Design 

of  the  clumsy  adornment  within  and  with- 
out are  mere  excrescences,  hardly  affecting 
the  massive  pile.  The  cupola  is  one  of  the 
very  few  in  Europe  which  have  no  wooden 
building-out  to  a  metal  outer  shell :  like  the 
Pantheon  and  Florence  cathedral  and  the 
smaller  dome  at  Constantinople,  it  is  of 
solid  masonry  within  and  without. 


[158] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY    DESIGN 

In  rather  less  than  a  century  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Risorgimento  all  play  of 
fancy  or  vivacity  had  gone  out  of  the  de- 
signs of  the  Italians.  As  early  as  1510 
there  is  little  left  except  reserve  and  a  dig- 
nified rejection  of  all  exterior  ornament 
which  could  be  spared. 

A  very  similar  result  is  seen  in  the  North 
as  well ;  and  here  also  it  comes  within  less 
than  a  century  of  the  complete  establish- 
ment of  the  classical  Renaissance  in  France, 
Germany  or  the  Low  Countries.  It  began  in 
the  North,  this  classical  renascence,  about 
1510,  and  was  well  established  by  1525. 
Accordingly,  as  early  as  1600,  the  inde- 
pendent and  vigorous  life  has  gone  out  and 
it  becomes  an  architecture  of  the  decadence. 
Now,  it  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  deca- 
dence is  the  same  thing  as  decay.  Decadence 
[159] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

in  fine  art  is  a  term  applied  to  the  slow,  and 
often  very  interesting,  decline  from  the 
highest  pitch  of  enthusiastic  work  and  of 
combined  energy  and  good  taste.  Defined 
in  this  way,  there  was  a  decadence  of  Roman 
imperial  art  from  the  reign  of  Trajan  ;  or, 
as  some  would  have  it,  from  the  reign  of 
Vespasian.  And  yet  what  noble  things 
were  built  even  more  than  two  hundred 
years  after  the  later  of  those  two  dates  !  So 
there  was  a  decadence  in  Gothic  art  dating 
from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century ; 
for  everywhere  there  was  a  replacing  of  the 
energy  of  the  new  style  by  formality,  by 
regularity,  by  the  constant  repetition  of 
closely  similar  parts  :  and  the  pride  of  the 
skillful  builder  carried  it  over  the  refined 
taste  of  the  artist.  And  still  we  have  to  re- 
member with  admiration  and  amazement 
such  wonderful  conceptions  as  the  church 
of  Saint  Urbain  at  Troj'^es  (begun  after 
1265),  such  masterly  combinations  as  those 
of  Saint  Ouen  at  Rouen  (begun  1320),  and 
all  the  finer  buildings  of  the  florid  Gothic 
in  France — of  the  perpendicular  architecture 
[160] 


Decline  and  Advance  in  Alternation 

with  fan  vaulting  in  England.  All  these 
are  works  of  the  decadence,  and  what  is 
needed  is  the  substitution  for  the  term  we 
are  using  of  another  term  which  shall  not 
sound  so  much  like  our  English  word, 
"  decay." 

In  like  manner,  there  is  decadence  in 
the  South  from  1510,  or  thereabout, — in 
the  North  from  a  point  of  time  eighty-five 
years  later,  and  this  decadence  continued 
until  the  whole  ancient  world  of  traditional 
art  was  destroyed  in  the  stormy  time  of  the 
French  Revolution,  Since  then,  there  has 
been  neither  decadence  nor  growth,  but  a 
bewildering  series  of  experiments,  none  of 
which  have  as  yet  brought  the  world  into  a 
state  of  wholesome  and  natural  progress  in 
the  arts  of  decorative  design,  that  is  to  say, 
of  design  based  upon  structure  and  utility. 
Decadence  in  the  South,  then,  lasted  for 
two  centuries  and  three  quarters :  in  the 
North  it  lasted  nearly  two  centuries.  It 
stands  to  reason  that  during  such  long 
spaces  of  time  there  were  ups  and  downs, 
periods  of  more  rapid  decline,  periods  of  at- 
[161] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

tempted  restoration,  of  almost  a  new  birth. 
Thus,  there  are  fantastical  and  baroque  de- 
signs as  early  as  1620  in  the  North,  and 
much  earlier  in  the  South  :  whereas,  in 
either  case,  fine,  pure,  stately  buildings 
were  erected  at  a  much  later  period ;  still, 
the  general  tendency  is  from  the  more  sim- 
ple and  more  reasonable  to  the  more  ex- 
travagant ;  and  this  from  the  natural  de- 
sire of  the  designers  to  try  something  new 
and  not  to  be  fettered  too  closely  by  the 
traditions  of  neo-classic  design.  There  was, 
of  course,  a  reaction  from  that  greater  free- 
dom, and  the  boldness  of  the  men  of  1720 
and  thereabout  was  offensive  to  their  suc- 
cessors who  established  the  latest  neo-clas- 
sic with  its  Roman  colonnades  and  a  gen- 
eral absence  of  other  details  of  interest. 

Some  part  of  this  twofold  tendency — of 
this  revolution  and  counter-revolution — 
this  drag  towards  an  unseemly  lack  of  dig- 
nity and  quietness,  with  the  inevitable  pull 
backward  to  a  more  tranquil  method  of  de- 
sign— is  to  be  seen  in  the  church  of  the 
Theatiner  monks,  at  Munich.  The  local 
[162] 


Advance  and  Decline  in  One  Building 

authorities,  which  seem  to  be  trustworthyj 
say  that  this  church,  which  is  dedicated  to 
Saint  Cajetan,  was  built  in  1675,  except  the 
front  and  the  towers,  which  are  later — the 
date  usually  given  being  a  century  after 
the  completion  of  the  church,  though  this 
can  only  apply  to  the  upper  stories.  As 
long  as  the  low  buildings,  the  three-story 
houses  with  not  very  lofty  roofs,  remained 
unaltered,  the  view  of  this  church  from  the 
Ludwigstrasse  (as  in  Plate  LIV)  or  from  the 
Square  in  front  of  the  theatre,  looking  over 
the  houses  between,  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
pressive to  be  had  anywhere  when  a  single 
building  is  under  consideration.  The  pro- 
portion between  the  dome  and  the  two 
towers,  and  secondarily,  between  the  towers 
and  the  front  of  the  clearstory  raised  high 
between  them,  and  between  this,  with  its 
long  nave  roof,  and  the  cupola,  again,  is  uni- 
formly beautiful.  In  our  American  cities 
we  can  only  secure  such  a  result  by  build- 
ing at  great,  and  generally  impossible,  cost, 
on  a  free  open  plot  of  ground  :  but  for  a 
town  or  a  neighborhood  in  which  the 
[163] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

height  of  the  houses  could  be  guaranteed 
for  a  term  of  years,  no  better  type  of  metro- 
politan church  can  be  imagined.  You  can- 
not get  away  from  its  towering  masses ; 
from  far  and  from  near  they  are  alike  im- 
pressive. Whatever  reluctance  there  has 
been  to  admit  and  insist  upon  the  beauty 
of  this  church  is  caused  by  the  inferiority 
of  its  details.  Let  us,  therefore,  consider 
those  details.  In  the  first  place,  for  the  cu- 
pola itself  and  the  drum  which  supports  it 
there  would  be  a  general  acceptance  of  it  as 
sufficiently  of  the  graver  style  to  which  it 
belongs,  that  which  the  Germans  call  the 
Hoch-Renaissance,  except  for  some  part  of 
the  copper  lantern  at  the  top  which  smacks 
of  a  less  pure  style.  But  when  the  towers 
are  considered,  then  there  would  be  a  gen- 
eral rejection  of  that  treatment  of  the  pilas- 
ters which  causes  them  to  appear  as  mem- 
bers, only,  of  a  continuous  group  of  vertical 
mouldings,  emphasizing  the  corners,  but 
also  out  of  keeping  as  parts  of  a  recognized 
neo-classic  style. 

Such  pilasters  as  these  do  not  come  into 
[164] 


Changing  Taste  as  to  Detail 

any  Order  which  you  can  reproduce  from 
the  pages  of  Vignola ;  nor  would  the  curi- 
ous entablatures  forming  three  horizontal 
string-courses  on  each  tower,  and  two  on 
the  church  front,  proper,  be  accepted  as 
forming  part  of  any  systematized  and  in- 
telligible order  of  architecture.  The  liking 
and  disliking  of  such  details  is  very  largely 
a  matter  of  fashion  ;  and  the  difficulty  is 
with  all  such  questions  concerning  the  mere 
adornment  of  architecture  without  regard 
to  its  structural  essence — that  when  a  style, 
a  detail,  a  method  of  adornment,  is  out  of 
fashion,  it  often  seems  offensive  to  those 
who  are  working  in  the  fashion ;  even  as 
the  most  elegant  coat  or  the  most  elegant 
ball-dress  of  1840  is  a  monster  of  ugliness 
to-day  and  would  be  thought  to  disfigure 
the  elegant  man  or  woman  who  might  en- 
due it.  There  is  a  large  building  in  New 
York,  the  butt  of  endless  ridicule,  which  is 
nevertheless  extremel}''  sensible  in  its  dispo- 
sitions, well  arranged,  well  lighted,  well 
imagined  for  its  purposes.  But  the  un- 
lucky adoption  of  a  style  of  design  not  un- 
[165] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

like  this  of  the  Theatiner  towers  has  pre- 
vented it  from  receiving  even  a  moment's 
serious  consideration.  By  1920  it  may  be 
respected,  and  even  admired  as  the  prema- 
ture attempt  to  introduce  a  style  then  popu- 
lar. The  view  to  take  of  such  a  design  is, 
then,  that  which  we  would  take  of  a  work 
of  art  whose  epoch  we  did  not  pretend  to 
know.  It  is  a  good  rule  for  collectors  of 
expensive  works  of  art  of  the  portable  kind, 
obj^ts  de  la  haute  curiosity,  not  to  worry  about 
dates  or  makers  unless  the  things  belong  to 
a  well-known  and  much  studied  class.  If 
it  concerns  prints  from  engravings  by 
Aldegrever  and  Paul  Potter,  or  signed 
enamels  by  the  sixteenth  century  masters, 
or  by  Petitot,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  be 
sure  of  your  authenticity  ;  but  it  is  also  de- 
lightful to  decide  to  buy  the  Chinese  porce- 
lain, the  unsigned  fifteenth  century  draw- 
ing, the  Italian  peasant  pottery  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  before,  without 
other  voucher  than  the  beauty  of  the  piece. 
He  is  the  safest  in  his  collecting  who  holds 
firmly  to  his  own  sense  of  what  is  lovely 
[166] 


Art  of  the  Decline  Not  Contemptible 

and  intelligent  in  decorative  art,  recogniz- 
ing this  mark  of  authenticity  as  at  least 
equal  to  signatures  and  perfectly  ascertained 
dates  of  fabrication.  So  to  a  certain  extent 
with  works  of  architecture.  It  will  never 
do  to  dismiss  an  attractive,  and  perhaps 
even  an  impressive,  building  with  the  judg- 
ment easy  to  be  gathered  from  the  guide- 
books, that  this  is  of  a  late  date,  or  a  cor- 
rupt style,  or  was  designed  by  a  master  of 
the  baroque  in  art.  That  very  word  baroque 
means  originally  an  irregular  pearl,  a  pearl 
so  remote  in  shape  from  the  perfect  sphere 
that  no  respectable  jeweller  would  set  it  in 
an  earring  or  pierce  it  for  the  necklace  of 
a  millionaire's  wife  ;  but  the  artistic  jewel- 
lers of  the  old  times  would  take  those  ir- 
regular pearls  and  put  heads  and  tails  of 
gold  with  touches  of  enamel  to  them,  pro- 
ducing abnormal  birds  or  indescribable 
monsters,  most  admirable  for  decorative 
jewelry.  If  there  were  an  opportunity  in 
this  brief  inquiry  to  consider  interior  deco- 
ration, we  should  find  that  the  domestic 
buildings  going  up  in  France,  even  while 
[  167  ] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

these  towers  were  in  the  way  of  completion 
in  southern  Germany,  were  admirably  de- 
signed within.  The  beginnings  of  the 
Rocaille  ^  are  of  this  time  ;  and  the  Rocaille 
system  of  design  is  as  attractive  in  its  best 
examples,  in  the  delicate  goldsmith's  work, 
ivory  work,  and  varnish  painting,  of  1750, 
as  any  courtly  and  magnificent  system  of 
adornment  ever  used  among  peoples  of 
European  descent.  Of  course  the  European 
designer  has  a  heavy  touch  if  you  compare 
him  to  a  Japanese  artist  of  an  equivalent 
rank  :  of  course  an  uninterrupted  develop- 
ment in  a  certain  line  of  decoration  at  last 
leads  to  bad  taste  and  violence.  The  point 
is  the  simple  one  that  even  those  styles 
which  are  considered  fair  game  for  ridicule 
and  are  hardly  treated  with  grave  consider- 
ation are  charming  in  their  more  perfect 
monuments.  It  is  only  the  rational  styles 
based  on  structure,  which  in   architecture 


'  Rocaille  Decoration  :  That  which  had  originally  a  rough  imi- 
tation of  natural  rock  forms  mingled  with  shells ;  a  fashion 
passing  rapidly  into  scroll-work  in  relief,  giving  very  peculiar 
shapes  to  panels,  doors,  window-caserasnts  and  even  to  details 
of  masonry.  The  rococo  style  is  partly  based  upon  rocaille 
decoration. 


[168] 


Only  the  Great  Styles  Always  Fine 

have  any  uniform  greatness.  It  is  only  a 
real  style  like  the  Egyptian  of  3000  b.  c, 
or  the  Grecian-Doric,  or,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge,  the  Roman  of  Augustus,  or  the 
Gothic  of  Central  France,  or  any  derived 
and  self-conscious  styles  of  the  neo-classic 
Renaissance,  such  as  are  based  upon  a  new 
system  of  planning  like  that  of  the  six- 
teenth century  chateaux,  or  a  new  system, 
of  roof  building  like  the  fan  vaulted  in- 
teriors of  England  (three  or  four  of  them 
only) ;  it  is  these  alone  which  are  always 
fine  and  great ;  all  other  styles  have  not 
only  their  ups  and  downs,  their  rise  and 
fall,  they  have  also  their  normal  and,  there- 
fore, respectable,  but  moreover  their  ab- 
normal and  fantastic  compositions. 

Plate  LV  shows  the  front  of  a  well-known 
building  in  Turin,  and  here  architectural 
detail  has  been  so  handled  that  it  is  indeed 
a  disfigurement.  If  the  reader  will  look 
past  the  astonishing  window  casings  and 
the  really  hideous  filling  of  panels  like 
those  in  the  pilasters  of  the  basement,  he 
will  see  a  well  understood  front.  There  is 
[169] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

a  high  architectural  basement,  containing 
the  basement  story  proper  and  a  mezzanine ; 
a  grand  story  with  the  order,  containing 
three  stories  of  the  interior,  the  pilasters 
well  proportioned  and  well  placed ;  and 
above  this,  a  high  entablature  planned  for 
the  whole  front  with  a  story  of  rooms  in  it, 
and  another  story  of  rooms  showing  in 
little  dormer  windows  above  the  cornice. 
Here  are  six  "  flats  "  of  rooms,  all  abun- 
dantly lighted,  and  yet  the  front  has  been 
laid  out  in  such  a  way  that  it  has  all  the 
elements  of  a  very  imposing  and  stately 
structure.  Even  the  singular  soft  round- 
ing, with  a  plan  made  up  of  several  curves, 
of  the  projecting  central  mass  which  in- 
cludes the  porch  of  entrance,  is  capable 
of  perfectly  dignified,  and  even  stately, 
treatment.  The  appearance  above  of  the 
great  rotunda  which  holds  the  staircase, 
completes  the  composition  of  this  central 
mass,  and  leaves  one  regretting  that  it 
might  not  be  given  to  some  modern  de- 
signer of  good  taste,  and  a  hard  hand  on 
the  vagaries  of  his  assistants,  to  work  out 


Good  Masses  Spoiled  by  Bad  Detail 

the  problem  of  this  curious  central  mass, 
so  manifold  and  so  capable  of  unity.  But, 
now,  if  one  leaves  for  a  moment  that  ab- 
stract way  of  regarding  the  whole  front  and 
allows  those  window  casings  to  secure  his 
attention,  why  then  all  is  lost,  of  course : 
one  cannot  be  expected  to  stand  very  long 
in  front  of  such  a  building  ;  it  is  a  monster, 
but  it  is  that  merely  because  of  the  excep- 
tionally ugly  and  wholly  unreasonable  gim- 
cracks  that  are  stuck  all  over  it.  If  you 
should  take  the  Hermes  of  Olympia  and 
dress  him  like  those  "  fantasticals  "  at  an 
old-fashioned  Paris  masked  ball,  you  would 
no  doubt  produce  a  very  unsightly  object 
and  it  would  take  the  eye  of  an  expert  in 
human  form,  a  sculptor,  namely,  to  dis- 
cover the  beauty  of  the  figure  within. 

That  Turin  building  is  of  about  1690; 
see  now  what  the  reaction  brought  forth 
and  what  gravity  of  design  was  possible  to 
the  artists  of  thirty  years  later  in  the  same 
city  !  There  seems  no  doubt  that  this  front 
of  the  Palazzo  Madama  (see  Plate  LV)  was 
built  by  Filippo  Juvara  about  1715.  To 
[171] 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

look  at  it  is  a  rest  indeed  after  the  enormi- 
ties of  the  Palazzo  Carignano :  and  yet 
even  here  one  finds  himself  wishing  that 
the  wretched  device  of  carved  trophies  of 
arms,  as  the  single  motive  of  the  exterior 
sculpture,  were  absent  here.  Sculptured 
ornament  was  beyond  the  strength  of  the 
eighteenth  century  :  when  they  tried  to  in- 
troduce it,  then  the  result  was  a  failure. 
It  is  with  relief  that  one  looks  at  the  front, 
Plate  LIV,  of  the  Ducal  Palace  at  Genoa, 
which  front  seems  to  have  been  built  by 
Cantoni,  a  well-known  reformer  in  archi- 
tectural style.  The  tendency  has  been 
through  the  whole  century  away  from 
variety,  away  from  the  unexpected  and  the 
surprising,  away  from  all  external  ornamen- 
tation, whether  in  color  or  in  sculpture  :  the 
wheel  has  come  full  circle  and  there  is 
nothing  now  entertaining  or  attractive  in 
the  details  of  the  front,  except  only  the 
neo-classic  column  with  its  accompanying 
entablature.  The  columns  may  be  ar- 
ranged in  a  continuous  row  or  they  may  be 
coupled,  as  in  the  case  before  us,  or  they 
[172] 


PALAZZO    CARIGNANO,    TURIN,    PIEDMONT,    ITALY. 


PLATE      LV 


PALAZZO    MADAMA,    TURIN,    PIEDMONT,    ITALY. 


EXHIBITIONS    BUILDING     (KUNSTAUSSTELLUNGS-GEBAUDE),    MUNICH. 

BAVAKIA. 


GATEWAY    BUILDING    (PROPYLAEA).    MUNICH. 


PLATE     LVl. 


The  Purer  Style  is  of  Limited  Interest 

may  be  grouped  in  other  ways  with  a 
nearer  and  a  more  distant  placing,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  "  engaged  "  or  partly 
built  into  the  solid  wall  behind  them.  But 
however  placed  and  however  grouped,  they, 
the  columns,  are  the  one  decorative  feature, 
the  entablature  acting  in  reality  as  their  re- 
straining limit,  the  needed  link  between 
them  and  the  necessary  structure.  This 
building  is  of  1777.  Ten  years  later  the 
clock  of  the  centuries  marked  that  moment  of 
time  when  architectural  out-of-door  growth 
was  to  stop  and  architectural  transplanting 
and  forcing  were  to  begin.  By  that  time  in 
Paris,  the  centre  of  the  architectural  world 
for  the  eighteenth  century,  they  had  ac- 
cumulated a  number  of  very  worthy  build- 
ings. The  famous  Ecole  Militaire,  south  of 
the  Champs  de  Mars,  was  built  about  1760, 
and  the  most  accessible  front  of  its  princi- 
pal mass  has  no  artistic  charm  except 
that  obtainable  from  the  even  succes- 
sion of  large  windows,  the  well  drilled, 
the  exact,  the  highly  organized  lay  out  of  a 
large  front.  The  two  admirable  buildings 
[173  1 


Eighteenth  Century  Design 

on  the  north  side  of  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde were  built  in  1765-70  and  these  con- 
tain the  whole  style,  for  they  have  the  great 
free  colonnades  of  the  centre,  the  engaged 
columns  of  the  wings,  the  high  basement 
without  any  adornment  beyond  that  feeble 
breaking-up  of  the  surface  which  we  call 
Rustication,  and  they  have  for  all  external 
sculpture  the  feeblest  and  most  insufficient 
little  carved  frames  of  what  look  like  round 
mirrors  hung  here  and  there.  These  are 
the  two  typical  buildings  of  the  time  and 
they  are  typical  too  of  the  whole  tendency 
of  neo-classic  architecture  throughout  the 
decadence,  a  tendency  away  from  variety, 
away  from  movement  and  charm,  towards 
gravity  and  dignity,  but  also  towards  cold 
uniformity,  with  nothing  to  break  it  except 
the  semi-Roman  Order,  more  or  less  well 
understood,  more  or  less  graceful  in  itself 
but  having  no  real  mission  to  fulfill  and 
therefore  not  forming  part  of  the  organized 
and  perfect  whole  which  we  call  style  in 
architecture.  It  has  one  fitness,  however, 
for  a  hurried  headlong  modern  civilization, 
[174] 


The  Purer  Style  Depends  Upon  Good  Taste 

a  civilization  too  busy  with  its  physical 
development  to  spend  much  thought  or 
much  energy  on  the  working  of  pure  in- 
telligence. This  advantage  is  that  it  is  so 
easy  to  manage.  It  is  very  easy  to  handle 
for  those  who  can  handle  it  at  all.  There 
is  needed  to  make  it  sightly  that  good 
taste  which  controls  the  fancy  and  the 
memory,  and  prevents  the  designer  from 
even  recalling  those  well-known  details 
and  architectural  effects  which  will  not 
suit  his  purpose.  Given  such  good  taste, 
and  a  certain  moderate  acquaintance  with 
the  books,  and  designs  as  good  as  the  best 
can  be  made  with  great  speed  and  with 
perfect  satisfaction  to  all  concerned :  nor 
does  the  designer  need  to  go  beyond  the 
walls  of  his  draughting-room  to  decide 
upon  all  things  which  are  of  first-rate  im- 
portance to  his  conception. 


[175] 


CHAPTER  IX 

NINETEENTH    CENTURY  :    IMITATIVE    DESIGN 

So  far  as  architectural  history  is  known 
to  us  there  has  never  been  since  the  be- 
ginning of  civilization  a  condition  of  art 
at  all  resembling  that  which  surrounded 
the  people  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
There  have  been  epochs  of  deliberate 
revival,  not  only  the  famous  one  of  the 
fifteenth  century  in  Italy,  and  the  six- 
teenth century  in  the  North,  which  we  call 
especially  the  New  Birth  (see  definitions, 
Risorgimento,  etc.),  but  also  some  as  im- 
portant as  that  one,  to  the  people  con- 
cerned. There  will  be  always  such  at- 
tempts in  every  epoch  of  self-conscious 
civilization.  Under  Hadrian,  in  the  second 
century,  a.  d.,  there  was  a  deliberate  at- 
tempt at  reviving  the  Grecian  purity  of 
style.  Egyptologists  know  that  traces  are 
plainly  to  be  seen  of  similar  movements 
[176] 


The  End  of  the  Old  Traditions 

2000  and  3000  b.  c.  In  Byzantine  art 
there  has  been  much  conscious  restoring 
of  archaic  forms  and  methods.  In  France, 
in  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI,  there  was  a  de- 
liberate recall  of  the  world  of  art  back 
from  the  too  loose  and  irregular,  too 
fantastical  and  violent  style  of  the  mid- 
eighteenth  century,  to  a  graver  and,  as  it 
were,  purified  taste.  One  peculiarity,  how- 
ever, marks  all  of  these  reasoned-out  and 
deliberate,  rather  than  spontaneous,  move- 
ments :  they  succeeded,  and  the  ideas 
embodied  in  them  soon  dominated  the 
situation.  There  have  been  some  abortive 
attempts  at  reform :  but  those  which  we 
cite  as  rebirths  succeeded  altogether.  All 
the  tendencies  of  the  day,  good,  and  not  so 
good,  went  out  towards  the  revival,  and  the 
change  was  accepted  by  the  whole  world  of 
designers.  Nor  is  it  hard  to  see  sufficient 
reasons  for  this  uniform  tendency,  for  this 
simple  development  of  a  new  style,  how- 
ever introduced  :  the  designers  of  the  time 
and  their  more  instructed  critics,  the 
connoisseurs  or  dilettanti  of  the  day, 
[177] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Imitative  Design 

knew  nothing  very  positive  nor  had  even 
any  special  idea  of  any  style  of  the  past. 
There  were  no  photographs  and  scarcely 
any  books  of  historical  record — no  such 
books  at  all,  indeed,  if  by  historical  record 
is  meant  an  accurate  account  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  earlier  times.  Wealthy  and 
influential  men  of  the  later  years  of  Louis 
XV  might  have  been  divided  into  those 
who  rather  liked  the  fantastical  style  of  the 
rococo  and  those  who  contemned  it  and 
would  fain  have  had  something  more 
refined.  The  purists  saw  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  reproductions  of  Roman 
orders  a  finer  taste  than  their  own.  That 
much  help  from  the  past  they  may  have 
got,  but  the  work  they  did  in  the  course  of 
their  reformatory  movements  shows  that 
they  were  pursuing  a  perfectly  natural 
evolution  of  art  with  no  more  conscious 
guidance  from  their  theories  than  that 
which  led  them  towards  more  and  more 
severe  lines — more  and  more  slender  parts 
— more  and  more  constructional  methods 
of  design.  And  as  this  movement  was  so 
[178] 


The  Beginning  of  Experimental  Work 

natural  and  easy  we  never  think  of  it  as  a 
rebirth  :  by  that  term  we  mean  something 
much  more  radical. 

When,  after  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  men  began  to  breathe  free  again  in 
Europe,  it  became  evident  to  those  who 
observed  the  tendencies  of  their  own  time 
that  there  was  no  restraint  of  tradition 
left — at  least  no  restraint  which  was  recog- 
nized by  more  than  a  small  group  of  men, 
while  another  group  of  men  equally  intel- 
ligent, perhaps,  rejected  those  traditions 
and  set  up  their  own  standard.  King  Lud- 
wig  of  Bavaria  (reigned  1825-48)  had 
studied  and  travelled  before  his  accession 
to  the  crown  ;  he  had  purchased  and  brought 
to  Munich  the  Greek  sculptures  from  the 
temple  at  iEgina ;  he  had  seen  the  build- 
ings of  the  Italian  Renaissance  and  admired 
them  ;  he  was  a  comparatively  unprejudiced 
dilettante  with  a  liking  for  many  styles,  a 
sympathy  for  many  forms  of  artistic 
thought.  He  and  his  architects  started  in 
his  capital,  Munich,  the  Ludwigskirche 
(Church  of  St.  Louis)  only  a  dozen  years 
[  179  ] 


Nineteenth  Century :  Imitative  Design 

after  Napoleon's  final  dethronement,  and 
the  royal  Library  a  few  years  later — each 
of  these  being  in  a  kind  of  Southern  Roman- 
esque style  without  columned  porticoes  or 
other  attempts  at  classicism.  The  Aller- 
heiligenhofkirche  (Court  Church  of  All 
Saints)  is  of  the  same  character  of  design 
with  a  somewhat  more  frank  observance  of 
Italian  models.  The  Old  Pinakothek  was 
begun  in  1826,  contemporaneously  with  the 
Ludwigskirche,  or  nearly  so,  but  this  build- 
ing is  a  careful  study  of  the  Italian  Ren- 
aissance. The  southern  front  of  the  Royal 
Palace,  the  Konigsbau,  is  again  of  the  same 
year  as  to  its  commencement,  and  this  also 
is  studied  from  Florentine  fifteenth  century 
palazzi.  The  north  front  of  the  Post  Ofiice, 
directly  opposite  the  Konigsbau,  has  a 
Florentine  loggia  of  thirteen  arches — fif- 
teenth century  style,  not  badly  carried  out. 
The  Glyptothek  is  the  earliest  of  all  :  it 
was  begun  before  Ludwig's  accession,  and 
almost  immediately  after  the  restoration  of 
peace  to  Europe,  and  the  outside  of  this  was 
meant  to  be  as  Greek  as  it  was  possible  for 
[180] 


Careful  Imitations  of  Old  Work 

a  modern  designer  to  make  a  building. 
Within,  it  had  indeed  to  resort  to  the  non- 
Greek  device  of  vaulting,  to  cover  its  large 
halls :  but  it  was  still  of  Grecian  taste  in 
its  details.  The  Valhalla,  by  which  term 
the  King  designated  a  Temple  of  Honor 
built  on  a  noble  hill  by  the  Danube,  above 
Ratisbon,  is  of  the  same  epoch  and  of  the 
same  deliberately  Hellenic  character  of  de- 
sign ;  a  really  fine  exterior,  studied  closely 
from  a  Doric  Temple  of  the  best  period. 
Another  such  temple  of  honor  stands  at 
the  southeastern  edge  of  the  new  town  of 
Munich,  the  Ruhmeshalle  (Hall  of  Fame), 
begun  in  1843,  and  as  completely  Greek  as 
the  two  others.  The  basilica  of  St.  Boniface 
was  begun  in  1835  and  is  a  most  faithful 
study  of  the  later  basilicas  of  the  pure 
Latin  style,  that  is  to  say,  a  basilica  of  the 
sixth  or  the  seventh  century.  To  complete 
the  circle  of  the  styles  from  the  fifth  century 
B.  c.  to  the  sixteenth  century  a.  d.,  and  to 
cover  all  the  important  styles  which  mark 
the  circuit  of  those  two  thousand  years, 
there  was  built  in  the  Au  suburb  a  Gothic 
[181] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Imitative  Design 

church  as  completely  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury spirit  as  the  intelligence  of  the  builder 
would  enable  him  to  make  it.  Roman 
imperial  art  was  not  represented,  for  the 
scholars  had  hardly  begun  to  differentiate 
it  from  the  pure  Greek  :  and  for  some  such 
reason,  probably  because  the  Germans  have 
always  been  inclined  to  use  the  term 
"  Byzantine  "  for  all  round-arched  mediaeval 
work,  the  King's  advisers  made  no  attempt 
at  a  piece  of  rugged  northern  Romanesque  : 
but  all  the  other  epoch-making  styles  of 
Europe  were  included  in  the  enlarged  capital 
city. 

All  of  these  imitations  are  as  careful  as 
possible.  If  in  any  detail  the  style  imitated 
has  been  abandoned,  even  for  a  moment,  it 
has  been  with  a  feeling  of  "  needs  must "  ;  no 
pains  have  been  spared  to  keep  close  to  the 
ancient  spirit.  The  interior  is  what  is  fine 
in  the  basilica  of  St.  Boniface  and  it  is  a 
favorable  way  of  regarding  this  epoch  of 
copying  to  take  this  building  as  our  exam- 
ple, because  the  construction  and  the  sys- 
tem of  design  are  so  very  simple,  so  easy  to 
[182] 


Careful  Imitations  of  Old  Work 

grasp  and  to  imitate,  that  nothing  more  than 
a  delicate  care  for  details  and  the  power  of 
reproducing  them  is  needed.  The  mosaics 
and  the  paintings  of  the  interior  are  indeed 
not  equal  to  those  of  a  great  Roman  basilica, 
either  in  its  original  state  or  as  it  has  come 
down  to  us ;  the  painters  and  designers  of 
the  time  were  not  competent  to  reproduce 
those ;  a  critical  judge  would  say  that  the 
carving  of  the  marble  capitals  lacked  some- 
thing of  initiative — something  of  energy ; 
the  general  effect  of  color  of  the  interior, 
though  far  from  unpleasing,  though  even 
agreeable  to  the  visitor,  may  be  thought 
much  less  noble  than  that  of  a  fine  Italian 
church.  And  yet  this  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  interiors  in  Europe,  and  one  may 
visit  it  many  times  during  a  season  and 
like  it  better  all  the  time.  It  is  to  be 
heartily  enjoyed,  and  yet  when  there  is  a 
question  of  its  artistic  merit  as  a  design,  the 
favorable  comment  is  much  less  unreserved. 
For  what  have  we  to  admire  ?  Only  sym- 
pathy in  observing,  and  fidelity  in  repro- 
ducing, monuments  of  the  past.  Do  we  feel 
[183] 


Nineteenth  Century :  Imitative  Design 

as  we  speak  the  word  "  only "  that  such 
sympathy  and  such  fidelity  are  so  rare  that 
they  deserve  very  hearty  recognition? 
That  may  be,  and  yet  the  praise  given  to 
the  architectural  effort  may  be  not  great. 
It  is  not  by  sympathy  and  fidelity  alone 
that  great  designs  are  made. 

Let  it  be  admitted  that  if  the  architects 
of  all  Europe  had  been  so  delighted  by  this, 
or  by  some  similar  undertaking,  as  to  begin 
to  work,  altogether,  in  the  Latin  style — to 
build  all  their  churches  in  that  style  and  to 
study  the  problem  of  designing  civic  build- 
ings, and  dwellings  also,  to  correspond — a 
new  style  and  a  worthy  one  might  have 
originated.  Let  that  be  admitted  :  the  fail- 
ure of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  in 
the  absence  of  any  such  unanimity.  No 
great  body  of  architects  has  ever  agreed  on 
what  was  to  be  done.  There  has  alwayF 
been  a  competing  school,  a  rival  school, 
sometimes  several  of  them,  armed  with 
reasoning  and  enthusiasm  as  strong  as  that 
of  the  school  in  question  and  prepared  to 
beat  down  its  feeble  growth. 
[184] 


Imitation  Has  Not  Led  to  a  New  Style 

Or  let  us  take  the  Glyptothek,  a  composi- 
tion as  completely  Greek  as  the  feeling  and 
the  perception  of  the  day  enabled  the  archi- 
tect to  make  it;  are  we  to  take  the  shafts 
without  flutings,  which  seem  to  be  called  for, 
as  so  many  violations  of  Greek  verity  ?  In 
all  Grecian  art,  moreover,  there  are  no 
round-headed  niches,  that  is  to  say,  niches 
covered  by  semi-domes,  because  there  are  no 
arches  therein.  There  are  no  frontispieces 
made  up  of  an  entablature,  a  pediment  and 
two  pilasters,  used  for  mere  ornament 
and  surrounding  a  round-topped  opening. 
There  are  no  entablatures  constructed  with 
flat  arches  which  replace,  or,  as  in  this  case, 
relieve  a  flat  lintel  composing  the  epistyle. 
None  of  those  things  are  Greek  :  and  yet  it 
is  clear  that  Klenze  meant  to  be  as  Greek  as 
Ictinos.  Let  us  compare  with  that  front 
the  fagade  which  immediately  confronts  it 
from  the  south  side  of  the  broad  Konigsplatz, 
the  Exhibition  building,  finished  about 
1840.  (See  Plate  LVL)  Here  is  a  building 
which  is  more  purely  classic  than  the  Glyp- 
tothek in  almost  every  respect,  Roman  rather 
[185] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Imitative  Design 

than  Greek  in  its  proportions,  in  the  free  use 
of  the  Corinthian  column,  very  elaborately 
worked,  in  the  free  use  of  pilasters  with 
sculptured  capitals,  in  the  employment  of 
carved  modillions  :  and  yet  it  is  more  truly 
Greek  in  its  mouldings,  which  are  studied 
with  extreme  care,  and  in  the  absence  from 
it  of  such  violations  of  archaeological  accu- 
racy as  those  already  mentioned  with  regard 
to  the  Glyptothek.  It  would  be  thought  by 
many  to  be  a  finer  design,  attracting  less 
attention  merely  because  not  the  home  of  a 
very  important  collection  of  classical  sculp- 
ture, and  a  mere  shelter  for  temporary  ex- 
hibitions of  modern  art. 

The  Propylsea  (see  Plate  LVI),  also  at 
Munich,  is  the  most  nearly  Greek  of  all, 
for  even  its  use  of  details  not  known  to  us 
in  ancient  work,  is  very  careful  and  marked 
by  perfect  feeling  for  the  style.  It  is,  how- 
ever, only  a  gateway  of  honor :  and  in  that 
capacity  it  has  been  easy  to  treat.  The  de- 
signer, Klenze,  deserves  credit  for  not  hav- 
ing copied  some  one  of  the  ancient  gateways 
more  closely,  so  as  to  avoid  responsibility. 
[186] 


How  Imitation  Might  Lead  to  a  New  Style 

It  is  impossible  to  escape  from  this 
method  of  criticism.  You  cannot  judge  of 
these  nineteenth  century  buildings  without 
asking  whether  they  are  or  are  not  faithful 
copies  of  some  structure  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, A.  D,,  or  the  fifth  century  b,  c,  or  of 
whatever  epoch  of  the  past.  Those  who 
deprecate  the  unfavorable  character  of  the 
general  criticism  which  is  based  upon  re- 
gret for  this  ceaseless  copying,  tell  us  con- 
stantly that  the  artists  of  the  great  times 
copied  also,  that  they  were  always  studying 
the  buildings  already  erected  and  trying  to 
improve  upon  them.  That  is  true ;  but 
the  buildings  they  copied,  with  alterations, 
with  improvements,  with  enlargements, 
with  refinements,  with  natural  striving  for 
growth,  were  the  buildings  of  their  own 
time,  called  forth  by  the  same  necessity 
which  controlled  them,  fitted  for  the  same 
community,  based  upon  the  same  well  un- 
derstood method  of  construction.  The  fa- 
miliar comparison  and  lesson  drawn  from 
the  modern  art  of  the  shipbuilder  (for  in- 
stance) illustrates  this.  The  skilled  ship- 
[187] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Imitative  Design 

builder  whittles  out  his  model  with  an  eye 
on  the  past  and  on  the  present,  and  he  pro- 
poses to  modify  the  lines  of  his  own  latest 
partial  success  or  of  his  rival's  endeavor  in 
such  a  way  as  to  give  his  new  hull  more 
speed,  more  carrying  capacity,  more  stiff- 
ness— whatever  may  be  his  immediate  ob- 
ject. He  never  goes  back  to  the  ships  of 
the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  with  a  delib- 
erate intention  of  building  an  Elizabethan 
hull  and  sparring  it  and  rigging  it  in  an 
Elizabethan  way.  No  matter  now  about 
the  causes  of  this  difference ;  the  fact  re- 
mains, and  we  are  face  to  face  with  this  cu- 
rious condition  of  things,  that  whereas 
every  important  change  in  building,  in  the 
past,  has  been  accompanied  by  a  change  in 
the  methods  of  design,  so  that  even  in  the 
times  of  avowed  revival  there  was  seen  no 
attempt  to  stick  to  the  old  way  of  designing 
while  the  new  method  of  construction  was 
adopted ;  now  in  the  nineteenth  century 
and  in  what  we  have  seen  of  the  twentieth 
century  our  great  new  systems  of  building 
have  flourished  and  developed  themselves 
[188] 


The  Attempted  Gothic  Revival  in  England 

without  effect  as  yet  upon  our  methods  of 
design.  We  still  put  a  simulacrum  of  a 
stone  wall  with  stone  window  casings  and 
pediments  and  cornices  and  great  springing 
arches  outside  of  a  structure  of  thin,  light, 
scientifically  combined,  carefully  calculated 
metal — the  appearance  of  a  solid  tower  sup- 
ported by  a  reality  of  slender  props  and 
bars. 

The  mediaeval  styles,  that  is  to  say,  Ro- 
manesque in  all  its  forms  and  Gothic  of  all 
epochs,  have  been  copied  in  the  nineteenth 
century  with  an  accuracy  even  greater  than 
that  used  for  the  classical  and  neo-classic 
styles.  In  all  such  reproductions  the 
standard  of  criticism  must  be  the  same. 
Plate  LVII  shows  the  great  church  at  Don- 
caster  in  Yorkshire,  a  building  erected  with 
singular  care  and  forethought  and  at  great 
expense,  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  imi- 
tating what  is  often  called  the  "  decorated  " 
style  of  English  Gothic.  The  architect,  and 
his  principal  adviser,  a  gentleman  who  had 
given  much  thought  and  pains  to  the  study 
of  English  Gothic,  agreed  that  the  perpen- 

r  189 1 


Nineteenth  Century:  Imitative  Design 

dicular  style,  of  the  years  from  1350  on, 
had  been  allowed  too  great  an  influence  in 
the  Gothic  revival  of  the  time  (about  1860) 
and  chose  the  work  of  the  first  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century  as  their  prototype.  To 
this  style  they  were  faithful.  It  is 
nearly  true  to  say  that  an  imitation  so 
close  as  to  be  deceptive  would  have  been 
the  greatest  success,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
designer  and  his  employers.  The  main  ex- 
ception to  this  statement — the  main  differ- 
ence avowedly  preserved  between  the  mod- 
ern and  an  accurate  transfer  or  cast  of  an 
ancient  building  is  to  be  found  in  the 
sculpture  of  the  capitals  in  which  a  mod- 
ern realistic  study  of  natural  plant  forms  is 
evident ;  and  in  like  manner  the  design  of 
the  font  in  the  near  foreground  which  is 
not  like  any  old  English  font,  but  is  an  ab- 
stract design  showing  much  study  of  old 
English  metal  work,  silver  altar  vessels 
and  the  like.  Plate  LVII  also  shows  the 
exterior  of  this  interesting  building  which 
is  very  large  for  an  English  parish  church, 
the  tower  being  one  hundred  and  seventy 
[190] 


CHURCH   OF  ST.  GEORGE,   DONCASTER,   YORKS.   ENGLAxND,   INTERIOR. 


CHURCH    OF    ST.    GEORGE,    DONCASTER,    YORKS,    ENGLAND,    EXTERIOR. 
PLATE     LVII. 


Design  More  and  Less  Fully  Imitative 

feet  high  and  almost  exactly  equal  to  the 
total  length. 

As  there  is  no  architectural  style  peculiar 
to  the  nineteenth  century  in  any  of  the 
lands  occupied  by  Europeans,  it  is  inevita- 
ble that  the  greater  number  of  modern 
buildings  should  be  more  or  less  completely 
suggested  by  the  fine  art  of  the  time  when 
there  was  a  style  of  interest  and  of  individ- 
ual character.  Very  few  are  the  nineteenth 
century  buildings  which  are  absolutely 
without  such  suggestion.  At  the  same 
time  there  are  a  certain  number  in  which 
only  a  general  study  of  ancient  art  is  visi- 
ble, and  it  is  of  these  that  our  tenth  chapter 
treats. 


[191] 


CHAPTER  X 

NINETEENTH   CENTURY  :   ORIGINAL   DESIGN 

The  work  of  Henry  Hobson  Richardson 
may  be  named  as  a  noticeably  intelligent 
attempt  to  regain  the  lost  excellence  of  an 
ancient  style  without  copying  it  closely. 
This  appreciation  has  to  do  only  with  his 
buildings  of  the  years  from  1875  to  a  short 
time  before  his  early  death  in  1886.  He 
studied  deliberately  the  Romanesque  archi- 
tecture of  the  middle  and  south  of  France, 
and  as  the  elaborate  sculpture  of  human 
subject,  so  common  in  the  churches  of  that 
style,  would  not  have  been  practicable  in 
America  in  the  nineteenth  century,  he  de- 
veloped, with  the  assistance  of  certain 
American  sculptors,  a  semi-Byzantine  sys- 
tem of  foliated  design  which  adapted  itsell 
well  to  his  arched  porticoes  and  his  elab- 
orate interior  compositions  of  woodwork. 
Other  lands  than  France  were  visited  and 
[192] 


The  Influence  of  Southern  Romanesque 

their  treasures  put  to  use  :  thus,  the  central 
tower  and  the  general  grouping  of  the 
masses  in  his  celebrated  design,  Trinity 
Church  in  Boston,  Massachusetts  (see  Plate 
LVIII),  are  evidently  studied  from  a  Spanish 
original.  This  is  well  shown  in  the  illus- 
tration named,  which  shows  the  church  as 
Richardson  left  it.  The  tower  on  the  ex- 
treme left  has  been  replaced  by  the  acces- 
sories of  the  new  west  porch. 

Now  in  such  a  design  as  this  we  have  to 
separate  that  which  is  frankly  copied  and 
that  which  is  of  independent  design.  Thus, 
the  inlay  of  different  colored  stones,  so 
marked  in  the  apse,  and  in  a  simpler  way 
in  the  transept,  on  the  left  of  the  picture, 
is  taken  directly  from  churches  of  Au- 
vergne.  The  question,  then,  would  be 
whether,  the  idea  of  a  mosaic  on  a  large 
3cale  being  once  adopted,  the  design  fur- 
nished is  a  good  one  for  the  place.  Such 
designs  are  almost  common  property  :  they 
float  around  the  world  and  every  designer 
has  his  mind  stored  with  them :  the  ques- 
tion is  not  of  originality  in  combining  a 
[193] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

star  with  some  zigzags,  but  rather  of  pro- 
viding a  pattern  of  just  the  right  size  and 
character  to  fill  the  given  spot,  as  well  as  to 
have  an  independent  beauty  of  its  own. 
The  great  central  tower,  studied  probably 
from  the  cathedral  of  Salamanca  in  Spain, 
is  evidently  open  to  question  as  to  whether 
it  is  sufficiently  massive  in  appearance. 
There  is  to  many  persons  an  appearance  as 
if  the  stone  work  were  composed  of  too 
many  and  too  slight  colonnettes,  lintels, 
arches,  and  the  rest,  involving  the  use  of  a 
great  number  of  small  stones,  laid  up  not 
in  a  massive  wall  but  in  a  slighter  and 
more  exposed  fashion,  not  a  skeleton,  but 
suggesting  the  idea  of  something  very  open 
to  the  weather.  The  Spanish  originals 
have  somewhat  the  same  effect  but  it  is 
less  marked  in  the  old  buildings  and  with 
them  it  is  not  combined  with  that  mosaic 
of  different  colored  stones  which,  although 
the  practiced  builder  knows  it  to  be  super- 
ficial merely,  yet  gives  to  most  spectators  a 
feeling  as  if  the  wall  were  not  solidly  laid 
up.  The  building  is  certainly  faulty  in 
[194] 


The  Influence  of  Southern  Romanesque 

lacking  the  appearance  of  ponderosity. 
Seen  through  a  haze  or  by  dim  light  it  is  a 
noble  composition,  the  forms  exquisitely 
balanced,  the  central  tower  perfectly  well 
marking  its  place  and  its  structure.  It  is 
not  until  the  building  is  seen  in  a  brilliant 
light  and  its  detailed  effect  begins  to  tell 
upon  its  general  masses  that  any  exception 
can  be  taken  to  its  merit  as  a  general 
central  tower.  That  the  lack  of  solidity 
in  appearance  may  be  the  more  clearly  un- 
derstood, it  is  well  to  compare  with  the 
church  itself  the  porch  which  was  built 
long  after  Richardson's  death,  though 
avowedly  according  to  his  general  design. 
This  porch,  though  a  small  structure,  has 
a  massiveness  in  all  its  parts,  which  the 
church  has  been  said  to  lack.  The  sculp- 
ture is  also  especially  noteworthy  as  being 
full  of  that  mediaeval  feeling  which  forced 
even  the  carefully  modelled  human  figure, 
with  elaborate  drapery,  into  the  service  of 
the  architectural  design ;  while  still  the 
modelling  has  that  anatomical  truth  which 
modern  school-taught  generations  require. 
[195] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

The   conclusion   is,  with  regard  to  this 
church,  that  we  are  free  to  judge  of  it  as  an 
independent  design,  once  we  have  cleared 
away   some    few   doubts   of   archaeological 
accuracy.     Once  it  is  estabUshed  that  the 
designer  has  felt  at  liberty  to  take  a  general 
form  of  his  central  tower  from  impressions 
received  in  Spain,  while  many  of  the  de- 
tails   are    taken    almost  bodily   from   the 
heart  of  France,  the  rest  is  to  be  accepted, 
as  also  the  adaptation  and  working-in  of 
the    borrowed    details,   as    a    design    well 
adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  build- 
ing, to  its  place  in  an  open  and  uncrowded 
site   where    the    building    stands   free   on 
every  side,  and  to  its  material,  a  sandstone, 
not  very  fine  nor  very  hard.     It  is  one  of 
the  best  designs  in  the  picturesque  fashion 
which  modern  times  have  seen. 

A  similar  piece  of  bold  adaptation  to  an 
ancient  style  is  seen  in  Truro  Cathedral 
(Plate  LIX)  in  Cornwall,  begun  about  1880. 
No  person  who  has  lived  among  English 
cathedrals  could  ever  mistake  this  building 
for  a  design  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  yet 
[196] 


APARTMENT    HOUSE.    "ST.    ALBAN'S    MANSIONS."    LONDON. 


PLATE   LX. 


The  Influence  of  the  Developed  Gothic 

its  character  as  a  Gothic  structure  is  per- 
fectly maintained.  It  is  to  be  judged,  then, 
as  an  ancient  Gothic  building  is  to  be 
judged.  One  asks  whether  the  system  of 
vaulting  with  ribs,  and  a  filling  or  shell  of 
light  stone  work  between  the  ribs,  is  sup- 
ported and  resisted  in  the  best  and  most 
economical  way  by  the  system  of  buttress- 
ing, and  whether  this  system  of  buttressing 
without,  and  the  system  of  vaulting  within, 
are  equally  expressed  in  the  artistic  design. 
The  fact  that  the  modern  building  cannot 
be  allowed  the  cost  of  much  architectural 
sculpture  in  its  exterior,  though  unfortu- 
nate, cannot  be  urged  as  a  serious  defect,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  English  mediaeval 
churches  have  but  little  sculpture  as  com- 
pared with  those  of  the  Continent,  their 
adornment  being  concentrated  more  gen- 
erally upon  the  West  front,  or  parts  of  the 
interior. 

If   now   we   try   to  call  to   mind    some 

building  inspired,  on  the  whole,  by  classical 

taste  and  the  classical  spirit  of  design,  but 

showing  also  independence  and  a  strictly 

[  197  ] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

modern  conception,  we  shall  find  that  the 
search  is  not  a  rewarding  one.  There  are 
few  modern  buildings  in  which  the  classic 
orders  are  used  at  all,  or  in  which  classic 
details  have  been  carefully  studied,  with- 
out what  seems  to  be  a  strict  adherence  to 
recognized  types  of  classic  or  neo-classic 
general  design.  The  Greek  who  was  build- 
ing oblong  temples,  very  strictly  limited  to 
a  given  number  of  columns  and  a  given 
slope  of  roof,  might  still  group  small 
shrines  as  they  are  grouped  in  the 
Erechtheum;  and  he,  the  Greek  designer, 
generally  careful  of  his  Orders,  may  sub- 
stitute for  his  columns  a  row  of  draped 
statues  with  perfect  success.  The  designers 
of  imperial  Rome,  dealing  with  dwelling 
houses,  all  on  one  floor,  with  columned 
courtyards  and  covered  porticoes  surround- 
ing gardens  open  to  the  sky,  were  still 
capable  of  building  on  the  side  of  a  cliff 
and  in  the  Imperial  City,  too,  and  produc- 
ing a  house  three  stories  high  on  one  side 
and  one  story  on  the  other — handling  their 
semi-Greek  and  semi-Italian  details  with 
[198  1 


The  Influence  of  the  Neoclassic 

perfect  ease  and  nearly  perfect  grace,  and 
investing  the  whole  with  a  consistent  scheme 
of  ornament.  The  modern  designer  in  the 
classical  styles  will  not  do  that  very  often. 
In  the  first  place,  he  will  have  studied  only 
the  grandiose  buildings  of  antiquity,  the 
great  temples  and  porticoes  with  their 
minutely  accurate  symmetry  of  plan  :  and 
in  the  second  place,  he  will  have  conceived 
of  the  modern  use  of  classic  forms  as  being, 
on  the  whole,  a  simple  thing,  easy  to  the 
naturally  gifted  designer.  The  one  thing 
which  the  modern  workman  in  classic 
styles  expects  to  get  from  his  building  is 
refinement  of  proportion,  reaching  on  the 
one  side  towards  dignity  and  on  the  other 
side  towards  grace.  Now,  to  one  who  is 
naturally  strong  in  such  things,  the  obtain- 
ing of  these  beauties  of  proportion  is  an 
easy  thing :  it  is  achieved  or  it  is  not 
achieved  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  hours 
of  preparation  and  study  of  the  problem. 
It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  a  modern 
adept  in  the  classical  system  of  design 
should  think  much  of  detail  except  as  to 
[199] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

the  accurate  copying  of  sculpture  and  of 
the  curvature  of  mouldings  from  ancient 
examples. 

In  media? val  styles,  we  moderns  study  the 
small  town  house,  the  humble  parish 
church,  with  its  squat  tower  and  plain  win- 
dows without  tracery,  as  well  as  the  great 
cathedral,  typical  of  the  style  and  embody- 
ing its  full  character.  Of  classical  antiquity 
there  were  no  such  things  to  study,  during 
the  years  when  the  modern  feeling  for  clas- 
sical art  took  shape ;  nor  have  there  been 
until  the  present  day  many  opportunities 
for  judging  of  the  smaller  and  simpler  de- 
signs. And  therefore  we  take  from  classical 
art  mainly  its  colonnades,  its  stately  use  of 
the  three  great  Orders  of  Greco- Roman  an- 
tiquity, with  a  very  few  of  their  slighter 
modifications.  Those  buildings  of  the  great 
days  of  the  empire  in  which  no  columnar 
adornment  existed,  we  have  hardly  learned 
to  respect — we  still  look  upon  them  as  ex- 
ceptions hardly  worthy  of  the  attention  of 
one  who  would  study  the  great  arts  of  an- 
tiquity. Now  it  appears  to  one  who  will 
[  200  ] 


American  and  European  Tendencies 

study  the  past  closely  and  fearlessly,  that 
the  Romans  themselves  were  a  little  over- 
awed by  their  system  of  columnar  archi- 
tecture, and  were  slow  to  abandon  or  even 
modify  it  during  the  long  centuries  of  its 
constant  application  to  the  diverse  needs 
of  the  old  Mediterranean  world.  Still  more 
are  we  moderns  overawed  by  the  columns 
and  entablatures,  so  that  we  dare  not  play 
with  them :  and  yet,  how  can  you  hope  to 
design  if  you  are  afraid  to  play  with  the 
members  of  your  composition?  The  taste 
of  the  American  communities,  our  great 
cities  within  the  borders  of  the  United 
States,  is  markedly  for  that  kind  of  gravity 
which  we  associate  with  the  classical  styles 
— with  the  few  large  openings,  the  hori- 
zontal cornices,  the  low-pitched  or  invisible 
roofs,  the  smooth  white,  or  light  colored, 
surfaces  of  unbroken  simplicity,  the  care- 
fully studied  classical  colonnade.  The  taste 
of  similar  communities  in  England  is  as 
evidently  based  upon  a  long  familiarity 
with  the  picturesque  forms  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  of  the  Elizabethan  and  earlier 
[201] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

Jacobean  styles,  that  is  to  say,  of  so  much 
of  the  Renaissance  as  reached  England  be- 
fore the  foundation,  by  Inigo  Jones,  of  the 
Italian  semi-classical  style  in  that  country. 
Similar  to  this  is  the  feeling  in  Germany : 
for  it  is  most  surprising  to  Americans  liv- 
ing, as  they  have  done  since  1880,  in  a  time 
of  almost  complete  agreement  among  the 
architects  as  to  the  unique  and  solitary  im- 
portance of  Italian  neo-classic  methods  of 
design,  to  see  the  numerous  German  publi- 
cations teem  with  studies  of  sixteenth  cen- 
tury half  timbered  fronts,  of  seventeenth 
century  stepped  gables  and  turrets  crowned 
with  "  extinguishers,"  and  of  eighteenth 
century  florid  modifications  of  the  rococo 
style.  In  France  there  is  an  orthodox 
style,  a  recognized  style :  and  yet  it  is  in 
France  that  the  most  seriously  considered 
departures  from  that  style  have  been  made. 
The  difficult}'^  of  expressing  in  words  this 
complication  of  architectural  thought  is 
very  great.  The  English  designers  are  in 
one  sense  the  most  original  of  all,  for  they 
follow  less  closely  in  the  general  arrange- 
[202] 


English,  German,  and  French  Design 

ments  of  the  mass,  or  of  the  street  front,  the 
example  set  by  former  ages.  In  Germany, 
such  indifference  to  what  the  past  has 
taught  is  more  seldom  seen,  and  when  seen, 
it  takes,  most  generally,  an  ugly  form  of 
unrestrained  fancy,  guided  neither  by  tra- 
dition nor  by  strong  over-ruling  good  taste. 
In  France,  good  taste  is  rather  the  rule. 
As  in  literature,  so  in  all  departments  of  fine 
art,  the  fault  of  the  French  work  is  in  the 
desire  not  to  be  rash  in  the  way  of  innova- 
tion, and  good  taste  is  always  ready  to  in- 
struct its  votaries  to  follow  the  path  marked 
out  by  the  men  who  have  just  passed  by  in 
the  human  procession  and  who  had  needs  to 
supply  quite  like  those  of  the  present  day. 
It  will  be  well  to  rehearse  these  conclu- 
sions in  the  immediate  presence  of  special 
examples.  Plate  LX  is  an  apartment 
house  in  that  region  of  West  London  which 
is  just  northwest  of  Kensington  Gardens. 
It  is  not  a  costly  building  in  proportion 
to  its  size ;  it  is  not  adorned  by  sculpture 
except  for  an  unimportant  piece  above  the 
large  arches  of  the  entrance  front  and  slight 
[203] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

adornment  of  the  frontons  ;  it  is  built  of 
brick  with  stone  moderately  used  for  the 
purpose  of  color-contrast,  and  its  architec- 
tural ordonnance  is  limited  to  the  marshal- 
ling of  a  certain  number  of  pilasters  sup- 
porting the  simulacra  of  entablatures  and 
the  reality  of  very  obvious  pediments — 
these,  and  a  tower  well  enough  shaped  and 
placed  at  the  angle.  And  the  point  that 
the  student  should  make  at  once  in  looking 
upon  such  a  building  is  that  it  is  so  de- 
cidedly removed  from  the  world  of  obvious 
copying.  Nothing  is  copied  except  a  detail 
here  and  there.  One  has  the  pleasant  con- 
viction that  not  a  square  yard  of  space  has 
been  sacrificed  nor  a  square  foot  of  possible 
or  desirable  window  space  abandoned  for 
the  purpose  of  archaeological  verity  or  the 
repute  of  having  built  something  beautiful 
in  a  recognized  style.  So  in  the  case  of  the 
building  shown  in  Plate  LXI,  that  planned 
for  the  West  Ham  Institute  and  built  about 
1895  in  that  suburban  village  which  lies 
just  north  of  "  Woolwich  Reach  "  on  the 
Thames.  The  design  is  as  independent  of 
[  204  ] 


HOUSE    AND    BEER-SHOP    (ZUM    SPATEN)    HKHLIN.    PRISSIA. 
PLATE     LXII. 


Peculiarities  of  English  Design 

any  past  style  as  in  the  simpler  and  more 
commercial  building.  There  is  much 
sculpture,  rather  carefully  designed  and  cut 
with  great  brilliancy.  There  is  a  rather 
free  use  of  pseudo-classic  columns  and 
colonnettes ;  there  is  a  daring  combination 
of  larger  architectural  details,  such  as  gables 
of  cut  stone  with  rounded  outline,  capped 
with  bold  drip  moulds,  pinnacle-towers 
wrought  into  niches  with  statuary,  a  porch 
of  entrance  with  a  very  boldly  projecting 
hood,  well  handled,  with  caryatid  figures, 
a  staircase  tower  with  a  cut  stone  attic  of 
great  merit,  and  ventilation  towers  com- 
bined with  the  roof  structure  and  differen- 
tiated finely  from  the  masonry-built  forms 
near  them.  It  is  a  costly  building,  a  re- 
fined and  thought-out  design  ;  and  yet  one 
cannot  say  that  there  is  anything  of  the 
past  in  it  more  than  this — that  it  is  based 
upon  the  spirit  and  taste  of  the  Renaissance 
rather  than  upon  that  of  the  classic  epoch, 
or  of  the  mediaeval  epoch,  early  or  late,  or 
of  the  Post-Renaissance  epoch,  beginning 
in  the  North  about  1650.  This  relative  in- 
[205] 


Nineteenth  Century :  Original  Design 

dependence  is  what  the  foreigner  sees  most 
strongly  in  modern  English  architectural 
practice. 

Now,  in  German  lands,  there  is  a  little 
less  freshness  of  artistic  thought ;  the  artist 
is  always  in  the  presence  of  the  great  past, 
in  such  a  way  that  even  his  deviations 
from  its  spirit  are  self-conscious  in  a  way ; 
and  this  feeling  it  is  which  drives  the  dar- 
ing designer — the  man  who  would  be  orig- 
inal and  who  asks  us  to  sympathize  with 
his  manly  desire  to  build  for  the  nineteenth 
century  what  the  nineteenth  century  needs, 
not  what  a  former  century  made  for  itself — 
to  very  strange  vagaries.  Plate  LXII  is  one 
of  the  best  of  these  dashing  attempts  at  nov- 
elty. Every  part  of  the  wall-surface  is  oc- 
cupied with  painting  in  neutral  colors, 
which  painting  is  in  some  cases  reinforced 
by  reliefs  in  plaster.  It  is  not  a  poly- 
chromatic design,  but  a  design  in  light  and 
shade  wrought  into  emblematic,  armorial, 
purely  decorative,  and  even  representative 
forms.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  realized 
painting  of  human  figures  and  accessories, 
[  206  ] 


Peculiarities  of  German  Design 

so  marked  a  feature  of  the  ground  story, 
with  its  splendid  King  Gambrinus  at  the 
left,  and  the  Lady  Hopfen  at  the  right, 
stops  with  the  sill-course,  and  that  the  rest 
of  the  painting  is  much  more  abstract  and 
conventional.  Apart  from  the  painting, 
the  design  is  somewhat  commonplace  in  its 
main  masses ;  though  that  statement  is  un- 
fair as  it  stands,  because  it  was  not  intended 
to  be  seen  without  the  painting,  while  the 
details,  as  of  the  window  jambs  and  mul- 
lions,  are  very  carefully  wrought  and  very 
interesting.  It  is  only  above  the  eaves  that 
the  design  becomes  commonplace,  and  even 
there  it  is  redeemed  by  the  very  bold  fire 
wall  on  each  side  broken  into  gable-steps  of 
unusual  design. 

In  this  inquiry  we  are  taking  smaller 
buildings  as  more  likely  to  express  the 
general  thought  of  the  community  than 
are  those  exceptional  monuments  which 
form  landmarks  in  history.  We  are  com- 
pelled, of  course,  to  select  the  designs  of 
men  who  are  famous,  however  unknown 
they  may  have  been  when  the  buildings  we 
[207] 


Nineteenth  Century :  Original  Design 

select  were  put  into  shape :  but  even  the 
work  of  such  renowned  architects  as  Charles 
Gamier  shows  and  explains  the  general 
trend  of  thought,  especially  when  seen  in 
their  earlier  tasks.  Thus,  the  building  shown 
in  Plate  LXIII,  the  Club-house  of  the  Cercle 
de  la  Librairie,  which  was  completed  about 
1880,  shows  the  exceptional  merit  (excep- 
tional in  modern  cities)  of  the  Paris  fronts, 
together  with  their  comparative  lack  of 
significance,  at  least  in  detail.  The  en- 
trance on  the  corner  and  the  round  tower 
forming  a  vestibule  below  and  an  admirable 
card-room  above,  are  characteristic  of  Paris 
streets.  Straight  from  this  doorway,  and, 
therefore,  diagonally  to  both  the  fronts,  goes 
a  passageway  into  a  staircase  which  forms 
another  round  tower-like  structure.  In 
the  upper  story,  the  large  room  at  the  left 
is  a  billiard  room,  that  on  the  right,  a 
salon  of  reception  and  entertainment,  the 
*^  conversation  room  "  of  the  club.  All  this 
is  perfectly  well  expressed  in  the  external 
design  :  and  that  credit — the  credit  of  that 
sort  of  realism  always  restrained  and  always 
[  208  ] 


ri.UB     HOUSE.    CERCLE     DE     EA     EIBRAIRTK.    PARIS 


PLATE    LXlIi 


BUILDING    OF    NEW     YORK     LIFE    INSURANCE    COMPANY.    ST.    PAUL, 

MINNESOTA. 
PLATE    LXIV. 


Peculiarities  of  French  Design 

guided  by  good  taste,  is  to  be  given  without 
reserve  to  the  French  designers  of  the  long 
years  beginning  with  1860.  Good  taste  is 
visible  everywhere,  not  in  an  exceptional 
measure  in  this  building ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  to  be  thought  by  a  careful  student  of  the 
street  fronts  of  Paris  that  there  is  a  relative 
clumsiness  which  other  and  less  noticeable 
buildings  have  escaped  :  but  there  is  every- 
where the  visible  presence  of  thought — of 
matured  study  of  the  problem,  and  that  is 
a  thing  so  rare  in  the  modern  architecture 
of  other  lands  that  we  are  never  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  French  instances  of  its 
active  presence  without  a  new  thrill  of  ad- 
miration. 

In  the  United  States,  some  of  the  most 
thoughtful  buildings  have  been  those  in- 
spired by  the  semi-Spanish  style  of  the 
provinces  torn  from  Mexico  in  1848 ;  the 
missions  of  California  and  New  Mexico. 
Inspired  by  those  blessings  of  a  temperate 
region,  a  steady  warmth,  a  brilliant  sun, 
they  are  most  assuredly  :  and  yet  there  is 
originality,  so  much  as  to  cause  the  student 
[209] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

almost  to  forget  the  origin  of  their  design 
in  such  work  of  the  not  very  famous  past. 
Such  buildings  are  the  hotels  built  in  Saint 
Augustine  about  1885 — the  Ponce  de  Leon, 
in  which  the  architecture  of  old  Spain  has 
been  studied  more  carefully,  the  Alcazar, 
where  the  simpler  appliances  of  Western 
America  are  more  in  evidence. 

One  of  the  best  things  in  modern  origi- 
nal design  is  the  building  shown  in  plate 
LXIV.  Its  treatment  is  picturesque  rather 
than  severe ;  and  a  sufficient  reason  for 
that  treatment  is  the  recognized  difficulty 
of  applying  the  classically  simple  method 
of  design  to  one  of  the  modern  high  and 
narrow  buildings  of  many  stories  and  of 
many,  similar,  window-openings.  The 
walls  of  the  side,  on  the  by-street  and  on 
the  court,  are  diminished  by  the  adoption 
of  a  roof  of  abnormally  steep  pitch  with 
two  stories  in  it.  The  two  gable-walls  are 
broken,  as  a  result  of  the  same  device,  by 
the  beginning  of  the  slope  or  step  inward 
of  the  gable  itself.  In  this  way  the  use  of 
a  great  many  windows  all  of  the  same  size 
[210] 


Thoughtful  American  Work 

is  made  practicable ;  the  slight  differences 
in  design,  as  where  one  story  has  a  row  of 
round  arches,  and  the  like,  are  perhaps 
even  more  marked  than  was  essential ;  the 
monotonous  repetition  of  these  openings  is 
prevented  from  hurting  the  design  by  the 
very  picturesqueness  of  that  design,  which 
overcomes  their  monotony.  The  treatment 
of  the  two  gables  themselves  is  a  remark- 
able achievement,  securing,  as  it  does,  a 
vivacity  which  we  associate  with  the  Re- 
naissance of  the  North  :  while  it  is  still  re- 
strained in  such  a  way  as  not  to  clash  with 
the  extreme  refinement  of  the  porch  of 
entrance,  which  in  its  general  design,  as  in 
its  sculptured  details,  has  the  delicate  and 
subtile  quality  of  the  art  of  Italy  a  hun- 
dred years  before. 

This  is,  it  appears,  the  way  in  which 
modern  men  might  design  ;  and  this  is  the 
way  in  which  they  might  succeed  if  they 
were  able,  more  often,  to  give  personal 
thought  to  the  matter  of  design.  It  is 
obvious,  however,  that  this  giving  of  per- 
sonal thought  is  exactly  the  most  difficult 
[211] 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

thing  which  can  be  proposed  to  a  twentieth 
century  architect.  He  must  do  everything 
else  first.  He  must  see  that  the  heating 
apparatus,  the  ventilating  apparatus,  the 
electrical  lighting,  the  elevator  system, 
the  cooking  appliances,  which  will  come  in 
somewhere,  the  plumbing,  which  will  come 
in  everywhere,  and  the  endless  modifica- 
tions of  drainage — he  must  see  that  all  that 
is  faultless.  The  owner,  or  owners,  really 
care  about  those  things — they  do  not  care 
about  the  design.  Then  he  must  see  to  it 
that  no  time  is  lost.  From  the  moment 
when  the  previous  tenants  move  out  and 
tearing  down  of  the  old  structure  has  begun 
there  must  not  elapse  too  many  weeks  be- 
fore the  new  tenants  may  move  in.  Ten 
months  may  be  allowed ;  when  every  con- 
sideration demands  two  years  and  a  half,  or 
thirty  months.  And  throughout  the  few 
weeks  before  and  after  the  beginning  of 
that  ten-months'  space,  the  architect  em- 
ployed will  have  so  very  little  opportunity 
to  "  retire  into  himself" — to  retire  at  least 
into  his  study  and  lock  the  door  and  think 
r  212  ] 


Thought  Must  Replace  the  Lost  Tradition 

out  that  design,  taken  in  its  artistic  sense, 
that  the  hours  so  given  are  hardly  to  be 
reckoned  with,  at  all.  Uninterrupted 
thought  is  not  for  the  busy  architect.  The 
altogether  likely  sequence  of  things  will  be 
this — that  the  design  is  sketched  in  a  draw- 
ing-room car  and  turned  over  next  day  to 
a  high-paid  subordinate  to  work  out  ac- 
cording to  the  well-known  office  scheme. 

Such  traditional  ways  of  doing  have 
proved  good  in  the  great  days  of  art :  but 
the  nineteenth  century  was  not,  and  the 
twentieth  century  is  not  as  yet  certain  to 
be  a  great  day  of  art  in  the  decorative  or 
artistic  sense.  It  becomes  the  writer  on  ar- 
chitecture to  treat  those  two  adjectives  as 
synonymous,  for  in  architecture  they  are 
synonymous ;  and  the  d-ecorative,  or  in 
other  words,  the  architectural  treatment  of 
a  building  has  grown  to  be  so  foreign  to  our 
habits,  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  so 
difficult  (as  urged  in  the  last  paragraph), 
that  nothing  but  long-continued  and  en- 
thusiastic thinking  over  the  scheme  will 
conduce  to  fine  designing. 
[  213  J 


Nineteenth  Century:  Original  Design 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  building 
of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company 
at  St.  Paul  has  been  shown  in  our  final 
plate.  There  seems  to  be  evidence  there  of 
much  and  of  well  applied  artistic  thought. 
If  a  similar  instance  be  sought  in  the  older 
homes  of  art,  and  among  more  costly 
structures,  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral 
of  London,  now  approaching  completion  in 
the  district  south  of  Buckingham  Palace, 
may  be  chosen  as  such  an  instance.  A  few 
such  buildings  there  are;  a  few  works  of  art 
which  show  that  the  power  of  thoughtfully 
working  out  a  complex  design  is  not  wholly 
lost  to  the  world. 


[2141 


Index. 


A. 

Abbeville:  Church  of  S. 
Wulfraa 126 

Aisle    (def.)....(n<Jte)     54 

^gina :  Sculptures  from 
Greek  Temple,  at I79 

Aix-la-Chapelle :  Cathe- 
dral         85 

Albi:    Cathedral ..128 

Amiens :  Cathedral,  Ex- 
terior     102 

Amiens:  Cathedral,  In- 
terior         96 

Angouleme :    Cathedral.    83 

Anthemion    (def.) 

(note)     37 

Apse    (def.) (note)     76 

Arch,    discharging 57 

Arch,      flat,     replacing 
lintel    57 

Architrave    (def.) 

(note)     20 

Archivolt   (def.). (note)  135 

Artists  of  the  classical 
revival    (ff)  131 

Athens :  Choragic  Mon- 
ument of  Lysicrates..    40 

Athens:  Church  of  St. 
Theodore   86,    90 

Athens :    Erectheum, 

35,  39,  198 

Athens:  Parthenon 14 

Athens :  Restored  mod- 
el of  Parthenon 26 

Athens :    Sculptures    of 
Parthenon    28 

Athens :  "Portico  of  the 
Maidens"    37 

Athens :       Temple     of 
Victory 39 

Athens :    Theseion 14 

Audenarde :         Town 

Hall    127 

[315] 


Augustan  Roman  Art.    47 

B. 

Barbaric  art  not  unin- 
telligent         84 

Baroque    167 

Barrel -vault  (def.), 

(note)     54 

Basilica     (def.).  (note), 

71,  74,    76 

Bay    (def.) (note)     ^^ 

Bell  (def.) (note)     23 

Benevento :  Arch  of 
Trajan  _. 48,     57 

Berlin  ""(missia)  dec- 
orative house  front. .  206 

Blois :  Chateau,  Wing 
of  Louis  XII 145 

Blois:  Cnateau  (Wing 
of   Frangois   I.) 14S 

Boston  (Mass.)  :  Trini- 
ty Church 193 

Porch    of   that 
Church    195 

Bourg-en-Bresse:  Ch. 
of  Brou 124 

Bourges:    Cathedral...     31 

Budroun  (Halicarnas- 
sos)  :  Tomb  of  Mau- 
solus    58 

Buttress    (def.). .(note)     82 

Byzantine  (def.). (note)     69 

Byzantine  Architecture, 

69,    87 


Cambridge :  King's  Col- 
lege   Chapel 121 

Centralbau         (centred 

building)    (ff)  84 

Chaine   (def.)  ...  (note)  146 

Chartres :  Cathedral 105 


Index. 


Chevet    (def.)..  .(note) 

Choir   (def. ) (note) 

Choragic   (def.)..(note) 
Church   Architecture 

predominant   (ff) 

Classical  Architecture, 
only  the  more  stately- 
buildings    studied    in 

modern    times 197- 

Classical  Revival  in 

Italy   

the    same   affecting 
Architecture, 

(ff)  133,  (ff) 

Classicismo  (def.) 

(note) 

Qearstory  (def.)- (note) 

Cologne:  Ch.  Gross  St. 
Martin    "JT, 

Cologne :  Church  of 
The  Holy  Apostles.. 

Cologne :  Church  of  St 
Gereon    

Color,  external  decora- 
tion in   (ff) 

Columnar     architecture 

in  Roman  interiors.. 

overawes   designer.. 

Constantinople :  Church 
of  Santa  Sophia,  Ex- 
terior    

Constantinople :  Church 
of  Santa  Sophia,  In- 
terior     

Constantinople :  The 
Hebdomon  palace 

Constructional  origin  of 
design  less  marked 
after  1400  A.  D. .. 

Corinthian  (' def.).  (note) 

Coupled   columns. .  .141, 

Cupola  (def.)..  .(note) 

Curvature  in  Greek  hor- 
izontal lines 

D. 

Decadence    in    Art ;    its 

true  nature (ff) 

Decorative  Art  (def.), 
(note) 


103 
32 
40 

70 


199 
131 

143 

141 
74 

79 

79 

85 

193 

200 
88 


70 


118 

39 
172 

SI 
21 


159 

13 


Design  as  suggested  by 
structure  and  pur- 
pose    

31,  34,  187-188 

Detail,  inferior,  injuring 
a  good  mass..  164,  169,  171 

Doncaster  (Yorkshire), 
Church  of 189 

Doric  (def.) (note)     14 

Doric  Order  (def.), 

(note)     19 


Ecouen:  Chateau 149 

Egg  &  Dart  (def.), 

(note)  37 
Eleusis:  TheTelesterion  33 
English  building  in  the 

i6th  century  150 

Entablature  (def.), 

(note)     18 

Entasis  22 

Epidaurus :    Temple   of 

Asclepios       (restored 

fagade)   26 

Eoidaurus  :  The  Tholos    39 
European   Art   founded 

upon  Roman 55 


Fan  vaulting 116,  120 

Fashion  governs  archi- 
tecture except  in  the 
great   original    styles, 

165,  (ff)  168 
Florence:  Baptistery...  85 
Florence:  Campanile...  Ill 
Florence :  Cathedral. ...  96 
Florence :      Church     of 

San  Miniato  al  Monte    74 
Florence :  Chapel  of  the 
Pazzi    (Ch.   of  Santa 

Croce) 134 

Florence :     Loggia     dei 

Lanzi 132 

Florence :    Palazzo    dei 

Medici    137 

Florence:  Palazzo  Pitti  137 
F'orence :       Palazzo 
Rucellai   137 


[316  1 


Index. 


Florence :       Palazzo 

Strozzi   137 

Florid    Gothic    a    new 

style  IIS 

its  nature  and  epoch 

(ff)  116 
its  origin  not  con- 
structional    117 

in  civic  buildings, 

127-145 
Flying  Buttress  (def.), 

(note)     82 
Frieze  (def.)- ••  •(note)     20 


G. 

Gelnhausen :  Palace  of 
Barbarossa    70 

Genoa:  Ducal  Palace...  172 

Gerasa  (Jerash),  Syria.     60 

Gloucester :  Cloisters  of 
Cathedral  120 

Gothic  Architecture. ...     70 

Gothic  Architecture 
analysis  and  dates  as 
in  Amiens   Cathedral 

(ff)     98 

(jothic  Architecture  con- 
structional in  origin, 
93,  99,  loi,  103,  117, 

118,  124 

Gothic  Architecture  De- 
tails as  in  Reims 
Cathedral   (ff)   loi 

Gothic  Architecture : 
English  contrasted 
with  French  108 

Gothic  Architecture : 
Exterior  design  as  ex- 
emplified in  Chartres.  105 

Gothic  Architecture : 
Geographical  limita- 
tions of 95-96 

Gothic  Architecture  not 
strong  in  Italy 96 

Gothic  large  churches 
generally   incomplete.   107 

Gothic  Vaulting 93,    94 

Greek  buildings :  Their 
simple  plan 32,    56 


Greek  buildings :  Their 
simple  structure  .  .33,    56 

Greek  buildings :  Mod- 
ern opinion  of,  when 
first  discovered  and 
later    44-45 

Groin-vaulting      (def.) 

(note)     SI 

H. 

Hall,  the,  of  a  Country 
House,  or  College...   152 

Hellenic  civilization  pre- 
served by  the  Roman 
Empire   67-68 

Hexastyle(  def.). .(note)     18 

Hypaethral  (def.), 

(note)    42 

I. 

Imitative    19th    century 

work — ^accurate    .  (ff  )   182 

— inaccurate    . .  (ff)   182 

In  antis  (def.)  ..  (note)     62 

Independent     judgment 

of  art,  how  formed.. .11-12 

Inlay  of  Marble 76 

Intercolumniation,    why 

varied  i7-i8,    21 

Interior,  architecture  of 
the,     originates     with 

the  Romans 52 

Intrados   (def.)... (note)   135 
Ionic   (def.) (note)     35 


London :  Middle-Tem- 
ple Hall 152 

London:  Recent  Apart- 
ment House 203 

London :  Westminster 
Abbey,  Chapel  of 
Henry  VII 121 

London :  Westminster 
Hall    (roof) 152 

Louvain:  Town  Hall..  116 

Lucca:  Church  of  San 
Frediano    TJ 


[217] 


Index, 


M. 

Masonry,   Roman 

Masonry     with     dry 

joints,  ch.  I,  II 

Masonry  with  mortar.. 
Mayence    (Mainz)  : 

Cathedral    

Metope    (def.) . .  (note) 
Milan:  Church  of  Sant' 

Ambrogio    

Modern  Design: 

English  the  freest... 

French  the  most  taste- 
ful   203, 

German    marked    by 
innovations   

How      marked      by 

thought    in    U.    S. 

209, 

How      marked      by 
thought  in  England 

why  made  difficult... 
Modern  Taste  in  the  U. 

S. — in  England 

in   Germany,   in 

France    

Mohammedan       Archi- 
tecture     

Monreale :   Cathedral .  ^^, 

Mosaic   

Munich :    Allerheiligen- 

hofkirche  

Munich :      Auer-Kirche 

(Mariahilf-Kirche)    .. 
Munich:  Basilica  of  St. 

Boniface    

Munich:  Church  of  All 

Saints  (see  Ch.  of  Al- 

lerheiligenki  r  c  h  e  )  . 
Munich:  Church  of  St. 

Boniface    (Basilica).. 
Munich:  Church  of  St 

Louis,   (see  Ludwigs- 

kirche). 
Munich:  Church  of  The 

Theatiner  Monks 

Munich  :    Exhibition 

Building  

Munich:  Glyptothek.i8o- 


50 

56 
50 

82 
17 

202 
208 
206 


214 
212 

201 

202 

70 
96 
76 

180 

181 

181 


181 


162 

185 
185 


Munich  :  Konigsbau, 
southern   front 180 

Munich :  Ludwigskirche.  179 

Munich:  Pinakothek, 
the   old 180 

Munich :  Post  Office, 
north    front 180 

Munich :   Propylaea 186 

Munich :  Royal  Libra- 
ry  ...J. 180 

Munich :  Royal  Palace 
(see  Konigsbau). 

Munich:   Riihmeshalle. .   181 


N. 

Naos   (def.) (note) 

Nave    (def.) (note) 

Neo-classic  (def.), 

(note) 

Neo-classic  architecture 

begins    to    decline    in 

less  than  a  century. . 

O. 


18 
53 

32 


159 


18 


[218  1 


Octastyle    (def.). (note) 

Olympia :  Temple  o  £ 
Zeus   26,    29 

Orders  o  f  columnar 
architecture,  the  Ro- 
man use  of  them 56 

Orvieto:  Cathedral 94 


Paestum:  Temple.  14, 24,    29 

Painting  of  Greek  build- 
ings        24 

Palazzo,  the,  in  Flor- 
ence    137 

Palazzo,  the,   in  Rome.  138 

Palermo:   Cathedral....    ^^ 

Pandrosion   (def.), 

(note)     38 

Parenzo  (in  Istria)  : 
Basilica  (8th  centu- 
ry)         17 

Paris:  Buildings  on 
Place  de  la  Concorde.  174 

Paris :  Cathedral 31 

Paris:  Cercle  de  la  Li- 
brairie  ao8 

Paris ;  Ecole  Militaire. .  173 


Index. 


Paris :  Louvre  (east 
front)    141 

Parma :    Baptistery. ...     85 

Parthenon   (Athens), 

14,  26,    28 

Pavia:  Church  of  San 
Michaele    ^^ 

Pediment  (def.).(note)     28 

Peterborough :  Vault  of 
Choir-aisle  of  Cathe- 
dral     120 

Pilaster  in  ancient  and 
modern    works.  ..135,  137 

Pisa:    Baptistery 85 

Poitiers :  Tower  of  St. 
Radegonde  83 

Poitiers  :  Church  o  f 
Notre  Dame  la 
Grande    83 

Portico  of  the  Maidens 
(Caryatides)    -36-37 

Priene  (in  Asia  Mi- 
nor) :  Temple  of 
Athena  Polias 43 

Proportion     varied     in 

Greek  art 19-20,  29-30 

Cathedral  ...(flf)   102,  105 

Pteroma  (def.), 

(note)  17,    27 

Purpose  of  the  artist, 
the  important  thing. .     16 

R. 

Ravenna :    Baptistery. . .     84 
Ravenna :     Basilica     of 

St.  Apollinaire  Nuovo    ^^ 
Ravenna :     Basilica     of 

S  t .     Apollinare     i  n 

Classe    Tj 

Refinements    of   Design 

(see    Curvature,     In- 

tercolumni  ation. 

Slope). 
Reims:   Cathedral..  .31,  loi 
Renaissance     in     Italy; 

(see     Classical     Re- 

vival.Risorgimento) . 
Renaissance      in      the 

North,     cause    and 

dates   .., 144 

\%1 


Renaissance  in  art  at 
first  not  classic  ■ .  (ff )   145 

Renaissance  introduced 
gradually    148 

Renaissance  classical 
at  Ecouen  149 

Respond  (def.)..  (note)     75 

Revivals  in  architecture 
mtmerous  176 

Revivals,  those  only 
which  succeed  are  no- 
table       177 

Revivals,  those  of  the 
19th  century  did  not 
succeed    179,  184 

Risorgimento    (def.), 

(note)     46 

Rocaille  (def.)  ..  (note)   168 

Roman  Art  of  the  Em- 
pire         47 

Roman  changes  in 
Greek   design 56 

Roman  Empire,  intel- 
lectual   Influence. . .  .66-67 

Roman  Empire,  its  div- 
ergent influence  East 
and  West   66-68 

Romanesque   (def.), 

(note)     69 

Romanesque  A  r  c  h  i  - 
tecture,. . .  (ff)  69,  74,     ^^ 

Roman  Order,  the 139 

Rome :  Altar  of  Peace 
(Arar    Pacis) 66 

Rome:  Basilica  of 
Maxentius   i 53 

Rome :  Basilica  of  Sep- 
ta Julia 53 

Rome :  Church  of  S. 
Maria  Maggiore 72 

Rome :  Church  of  S. 
Maria  della  Pace 
Cloister 141 

Rome :  Church  of  San 
Pietro   in   Vaticano. .  154 

Rome:  Church  (round) 
San  Stefano 85 

Rome:  Column  of  Tra- 
jan         63 

Rome :     Courtyard     of 

the    Cancellaria 138 

5»1 


Index. 


Rome:  Double  Temple 
of  Venus  and  Rome.,    53 

Rome :  Forum  of  Ner- 
va,  Enclosing  Wall..     60 

Rome :  Forum  of  Tra- 
jan       47 

Rome :  Forum  Trans- 
itorium  of  Nerva....     60 

Rome :  Liberian  Basil- 
ica, (see  St.  Maria 
Maggiore). 

Rome :  Palatine  Hill, 
Dwellings  on 53 

Rome :  Palazzo  Borg- 
hese  141 

Rome :  Palazzo  di  Ven- 
ezia,  interior  court.  ...138 

Rome :  Temple  of  An- 
toninus  Pius 48 

Rome:  Temple  of  Au- 
gustus   (Ruined) 49 

Rome :  Temple  of  Cas- 
tor     48,    49 

Rome :  Temple  of  Mars.    49 

Rome :  Temple  of  Mars 
the  Avenger  (in  the 
Forum  of  Augustus),    48 

Rome :  Temple  of  Min- 
erva         60 

Rome:  Temple  of  Sa- 
turn       48 

Rome:  Temple  of  Tra- 
jan       62 

Rome:  Temple  of  Ves- 
pasian       48 

Rome :  Temple  of  Ves- 
pasian, part  of  Enta- 
blature         57 

Rome:  Pantheon, 

47,  49.  50,  SI.  133      Tetrapylon  (four  front 

Rome:  Ulpian  Basilica,  ed  gateway) 59 

53,    62      Thermae   (def.)..  (note)   112 

Rums  not  to  be  judged  Tholos  (def.)  ...  (note)     39 

as  works  of  art...  14,     15      Tournai :  Cathedral....     78 

Russia:    (Caucasus)  Tournai:   Tower-group.    82 

Monastery    of    Gelati  Trabeated  (def.). (note)     64 

near  Kutais   90      Triforium  (def.). (note)     97 

T  r  o  y  e  s  :    Church   of 
S-  Saint   Urbain 160 

Saint  Augustine  (Flor-             Truro,  (Cornwall,  Eng- 
ida)   Hotel  Alcazar..  210  land)    Cathedral 196 

r  230  1 


Saint  Augustine  (Flor- 
ida) Hotel  Ponce  de 
Leon 210 

SL  Paul  (Minnesota, 
Building  of  New  York 
Life  Insurance  Co....  214 

Salamanca :  University 
portal    116 

Salisbury:    Cathedral..   108 

Saracen:  (see  Moham- 
medan). 

Screen,  the,  of  a  hall.  .152-3 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
in  Doric  buildings...     36 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
in  Ionic  buildings...     36 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
in  Roman  buildings. .     57 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
feeble  in  i8th  centu- 
ry, (see  Romanesque 
Gothic)  172 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
foliated,  19th  centu- 
ry    192 

Sculpture,  architectural, 
of  the  figure,  19th 
century  195 

Siena:    Cathedral 96 

Slope  of  Grecian  col- 
umns       22 

Standard  of  Excellence 
hard  to  fix 30-31 

Stylobate   (def.). (note)     21 

Sunion :  Temple  of 
Athena   29 

T. 


Index. 


Turin:  Palazzo  Carig- 
nano   169 

Turin :  Palazzo  Mad- 
ama 171 

V. 

Valencia:  Casa  Lonja..  116 
Valhalla,     The,      (near 

Ratisbon,  Bavaria).,.  181 
Valladolid :     Portal    of 

Church  of  St.  Paul. .  116 

Vaulting    50-51 

Vaulting,   Roman 50 

Venice:  Church  of  San 

Marco   92 


Verona:  Church  of  San 
Zeno  77 

W. 

West  Ham  (Essex), 
England,  West  Ham 
Institute    204 

Windsor  Castle,  St. 
George's    Chapel...       121 

Wollaton  Hall,  Eng- 
land      151 

Workmanship  of  Greek 
buildings   24 


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